Of Ponds and Potters
by Ashlee Pond
Summary: "Oh, this is how it all ends; Pond, flirting with herself. True love at last." "I think you mean Potter, not Pond." "No, I think he means Evans, you prat." "Just how many of me are there!" - When the TARDIS crash lands in another dimension of time and space, the Eleventh Doctor discovers that his dear Amelia Pond is extraordinary in every universe, by any name.
1. Where You Need to Go

**Of Ponds and Potters**

_One - Where You Need to Go_**  
**

The Doctor liked to think that he and his TARDIS knew each other very well, after nine hundred years running around all of time and space together. She might have been a bit of a fickle thing, but he honestly believed that the two of them, Doctor and TARDIS, had each other's best interests at heart – well, heart_s_ plural, in his case, and perhaps it was all for the best that he had two, because he wasn't really sure if she actually had a physical heart at all. Anyway, the point was that, in the end, she always took him where he needed to go. And the Doctor knew this, he honestly did. But at times like this, when she threw herself violently off course, it was a bit hard to remember.

"Oh, come on, don't do this to me!" The Doctor exclaimed, madly flinging levers and turning dials, twirling around the centre console of the TARDIS in a mad dash. "Stop shaking, you're just having a tantrum now!"

"Doctor!" Amy Pond was clinging on to the stair railing, digging the heels of her Converse in to the floor in an attempt to keep herself from falling over. "Doctor, I think whatever you're doing is just making it worse!"

The Doctor shook his head, slamming his open palm down onto a flashing green button and wincing when it emitted a short, high pitched shriek. "You are so _Scottish_ sometimes, Amy Pond."

"Well yes," she snapped, trying to pull herself up onto the centre platform. "I _am _Scottish."

"Yes, but you're _particularly _Scottish when you're scared."

"I'm not scared!" She huffed, her indignation giving her the drive to wrench herself upright.

"Of course not, you're Amelia Pond," the Doctor smiled, earning himself a grin from Amy in return.

When the TARDIS lurched aggressively to the side, however, Amy's grin slipped. "And you're the Doctor, so _fix your TARDIS_!"

"I'm trying!" He leapt around the console and pulled the wibbly lever, and just as suddenly as it had started shaking, the TARDIS came to a halt. There was a brief moment of tense silence, and then the Doctor stood up, clapping his hands together enthusiastically. "There! You see, I knew exactly what I was doing. No need to worry, everything's perfectly fine and we are exactly where I wanted us to go."

Amy put her hands on her hips and sighed, "And where would that be?"

"Not the slightest." He skipped past her to the door, his hair flopping in front of his eyes. "Let's go find out!"

She couldn't help but smile at the Doctor's enthusiasm, and so was right behind him when he pulled open the door of the TARDIS and stepped out into – a giant dining hall. At least, that's what Amy thought it was, mainly because of the four tables running its entire length. The walls were stone, and looked to be incredibly old.

"Are we in the medieval ages?" Amy went to ask, but the words died on her lips as she looked up to see that the hall had no roof. There was just sky, suspended over their heads and showing heavy, dark rainclouds and fat droplets of water cascading down. And yet, they were perfectly dry. The whole hall was perfectly dry. In fact, underneath the sky, there were candles, hundreds of burning wax candles, just floating in mid air. Amy had thought that over time she'd get used to seeing strange things with the Doctor, but she certainly wasn't used to it now. "On another planet?"

The Doctor had his back to her, waving the sonic screw driver around the corner of the TARDIS. "I don't know quite where we are…" He patted the wall of the blue phone box and asked absently, "Where have you taken us, old girl?"

Amy walked around to his other side and looked at the grand table set up on the raised platform at the front of the hall, and then through the great arched windows behind it. She darted up there, pressing her palm to the window and rubbing a clear circle in the frost to peer outside. It was fairly dark, but she could make out rolling hills, a thick forest and lights shining through what she assumed were windows a little way out. Something tugged at the back of her mind, an insistent nag that grew stronger the longer she looked out the window. And then it dawned on her.

"Doctor." She spun around, and something in her voice must have been sharp enough to grab his attention, because he looked up from the sonic and straight at her. "I know where we are. It's impossible, but I do, I know where we are."

In a few strides the Doctor was standing beside her, glancing between the clear circle she'd made on the window pane and her eyes. "Where are we, Amy?"

"We're in Scotland."

* * *

**a.n. **Oh yeah guys, this is happening. I was honestly amazed that, with the amount of people that picture Karen Gillan as Lily, there weren't any Lily/Amy cross overs. Next chapter they meet and it is going to be awesome, I promise.  
This story will be pretty short, I reckon. Maybe around 10 chapters? I don't know, I'm still writing it. And it's so, so fun! But yeah, I have the plot all worked out and explained and all of that marvellous timey wimey wibbly wobbly stuff sorted.  
Please let me know what you think of the introduction, and of my characterisation. It's so important to me that the characters are portrayed well, especially in fanfiction, and your reviews will guide my writing. They'll also inspire me to update faster, so if you like it, please review! Thanks for reading, you darlings.


	2. Different Paths

_Two - Different Paths_

The Doctor glanced one more time out the window before nodding. "You're right, we're in Scotland. How does it feel to be home, Amy?"

Before Amy could answer, he'd jumped back down to the TARDIS and disappeared inside. She opened the door to see him standing at the screen, looking perplexed. "Is everything okay?"

"Something's blocking our conductors," the Doctor explained, half of his attention on Amy and the other half on the centre console. "There's some other type of energy here that I can't quite get a reading of, because it's scrambling all of our signals. It's everywhere, heaps of it…"

"So we're stuck here then?" Amy asked, sounding more annoyed than scared.

"Not stuck, exactly -" The Doctor walked over to where she stood, just inside the door. She gave him a disbelieving look, and he conceded, "Okay, we're stuck. But only until I figure out what it is that's disrupting the TARDIS."

As though this wasn't a problem, he pushed her back out into the hall, locked the door of the TARDIS and started moseying down the centre aisle, occasionally waving the sonic screwdriver at something that caught his fancy. Amy hurried after him, vaguely thankful for the fact that she'd decided to wear a jacket and scarf that morning, as she was going to need warmth if they were going to go looking around Scotland. It was alright for the Doctor, wearing his usual tweed jacket and trousers, but Amy was in her usual attire, too; a short skirt. So any extra warmth she had, she would treasure.

"But what time is it?" She asked when she'd caught up to the Doctor, who was now walking along on top of one of the wooden benches that lined either side of the tables.

"I'd say about ten o'clock at night." He jumped down in front of her, looking from side to side and up to the roof – it must have been an invisible roof, Amy had decided - as though he'd landed in a wonderland.

Amy sighed, exasperated. "No, what _time _are we in?"

The Doctor stopped, and she almost ran into him. Oblivious to personal space, he turned to face her. "The architecture suggests this castle was built in the early middle ages, I'd guess around 1000 CE -" He took a step back, waved the sonic, and continued, "-No, closer to 993. There's no trace of electric wiring anywhere, so we should still be pretty far back, and you were right, we are definitely in Scotland; but something feels _off_…"

"What do you mean, off? Like, hostile life forces will try to kill us as soon as they find us, off?" Amy asked, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"I don't think so…" The Doctor answered, but he sounded so distant and looked so focused on whatever readings the sonic was giving him that Amy wondered if he'd even heard her question. "Very strange, very strange indeed." He straightened suddenly and headed towards the wooden doors towering at the end of the hall, calling cheerfully, "Come along, Pond!"

When they exited through the thick doors, they found themselves standing in a smaller hall, just as deserted as the first. Amy felt slightly unnerved, but the Doctor didn't seem as worried as before. Indeed, he practically pranced up the stair case in front of them, rambling on about architecture, atmosphere and aesthetics and a scholar he'd known from the middle ages whom he'd saved from being hanged after he'd had the nerve to tell the church that humans weren't the only sentient beings in the universe.

Amy followed at a slower pace, taking in the grandeur of their surroundings. She was grateful to note that this room had an actual roof, even if it did stretch high above their heads into gables and turrets. About half way up the stairs there was an elaborate painting hanging on the wall, in a heavy gilded frame. She stopped to admire the detail on the sleeping figure's dress, reaching out a hand to touch the painting, when suddenly the woman depicted in oil paints blinked open her eyes and pulled her skirts away with a huff. Amy jumped back, startled.

"How rude!" The painted woman declared, turning and storming to the edge of the frame – where she just disappeared.

"Did you say something, Amy?" The Doctor asked from the top of the stair case.

"The painting, the woman in the painting…" Amy turned from the painting, which was now of an empty arm chair, to the Doctor with wide eyes. "She just got up and left."

"Got up and left the painting?" The Doctor repeated, bounding back down to the same level as Amy, and peered at the oil painting in front of her.

Amy pushed her hair out of her eyes. "Yeah, there- there was a woman, painted in the chair, asleep. And I- I woke her up, or something, I don't know, and she just got up and stormed right out of the painting."

"How _fascinating!_" The Doctor exclaimed, lifting the edge of the frame from the wall and bending awkwardly to peer behind it. He soniced the canvas, and turned around in a circle as though he half expected to see the painted woman now standing in the room with them.

"What is it?" Amy asked, peering around nervously. "Is it some kind of-of hologram, or interface thingy just made to look old?"

"No, no, it's definitely oil paint, on canvas." The Doctor made a sweeping gesture with his arm. "This is a marvellous place, Amy, don't you think?"

"A bit creepy," Amy answered, looping her scarf around her neck once more.

"Oh, come on, there are plenty of castles in Britain, you should be used to this," he replied flippantly.

"Well, yeah," she said as they walked up to the top of the staircase. "But I'm used to being in them when they're – you know, tourist destinations. Not… Not whatever this is."

"Maybe this is a tourist destination," the Doctor offered brightly, but then shook his head. "No, no, much too guarded for that. Definitely not a place to just let anyone wander around the halls at night -"

"Where do you think everyone is?" Amy asked.

"In -" The Doctor cut himself off, mouth opening in surprise and then splitting into a huge grin. Amy followed his gaze to a painting on the wall to their right, in which a man wearing emerald green robes and a pointed hat was sitting by a fire, reading a book. And he was definitely reading it, because as they watched he turned the page. "Excuse me, good fellow!"

The man in the painting looked up and across at them, raising his eyebrows beneath the brim of his hat. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I think you can," the Doctor said, stepping up to the wall. Amy joined him, watching the painted man closely.

Before the Doctor could continue, however, the painted man stood up and smiled warmly. "Ah, Miss Evans. And this must be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher! I should have guessed it from the bow tie. Dumbledore's not in his office at the moment, according to the portraits – urgent owl from the ministry, I suppose he didn't have time to get a message to you – but he should be back relatively soon, so I suppose you can wait in his office if you have any administrative problems to sort out."

Amy opened her mouth to ask the oil man what the hell he was talking about, but the Doctor kicked her ankle and she just gasped. "Thanks very much!" He exclaimed, "Very helpful indeed."

He hooked his arm through Amy's and pulled her away down the corridor, out of ear shot of any of the paintings on the walls – How well could oil paintings hear, exactly?

"That wasn't helpful at all! Do you have any idea what any of that meant? And why did he call me Miss Evans?" Amy snapped, rubbing her ankle. "And that kick really hurt."

"Yes it was, no I don't, not a clue, and sorry," the Doctor said in a hurry, stopping only briefly to draw a big breath before continuing on, "So, we're in a school, a very old school, a very, very old school, with a subject called Defence Against the Dark Arts – that sounds promising, doesn't it, Dark Arts? I suppose the Defence part is good, right, but why would they need to add it to the school curriculum? Unless it's a big threat, a huge threat, one that could effect their entire population, race, civilisation – Which means it's bad, very bad, so bad, in fact, that they're preparing their children to fight it. Yes, okay, right, so that explains where everyone is, but _what _are they fighting and _how _are they doing it?"

Amy leant back against the stone wall and asked, "Hang on, where is everyone?"

"Ten o'clock at night, in a school? Everyone's in bed," the Doctor said, as though this was an obvious link she should have noticed.

"Okay." Amy leant back against the stone wall. "So what do we do now?"

"We go get some answers," he told her, rubbing his hands together with obvious glee.

Amy couldn't help but laugh at his excitement. "I do love a good adventure."

So the two of them, Doctor and companion, set off down the corridor, slowly getting used to the paintings around them making small movements and whispering behind their backs, until they came to an opening that branched off into various staircases. Amy peered over the railing of the closest stairs and saw that there were more on every level, both above and below them. "How big is this place?" She breathed.

"Quite large, for human standards," the Doctor said.

"So you're sure there's humans here, then?"

The Doctor smiled reassuringly. "Yes, but I'm not sure what type of humans."

"What do you mean, 'what _type _of huma-' Oh!" Amy's sentence was cut short as the staircase she was standing on lurched forward suddenly, swinging out into the open air of the tower. "Doctor!" She gripped the railing so tightly her knuckles went white and stared back at the Doctor, who was stranded on the landing behind her.

"Amy!" He called out, rushing to the edge of the platform just as a new staircase swung in to take the place of the one Amy stood on, which was now connected to a landing on the left side of the room. "Amy, it's okay! It's just a clever trick, some nifty architecture!"

"Doctor, how do I get back? Can you get up here?" Amy loosened her grip slightly, but her worry was still evident in her voice.

"I'm sure I can, I'll just have to go… another way." The Doctor wrung his hands.

"Will the staircases move back, do you think?" As nice as that would have been, Amy had a feeling there wasn't much chance of that happening. Things could never just be easy, could they?

"They should, but there's no telling when _that _staircase will come back to _this _landing." The Doctor looked a bit worried, but he held a hand up to her and said confidently, "Stay put, Amy, don't move, and I'll come to you, okay? I'll be right there. Just _stay put_."He bounded up the staircase in front of him and disappeared into a corridor a story above Amy.

Now, as much as she trusted her Raggedy Doctor, Amy was nothing if not curious, and she had been promised an adventure. So the Doctor shouldn't have been surprised when she rolled her eyes and muttered, "Yeah, like _that's _going to happen."

So Amy Pond set off down one corridor, and the Doctor raced along another, and neither had any idea of what they were going to collide with.

* * *

**a.n. **A note for the timing of the story; very, very near the beginning of Seventh Year for Lily and James, and in between "Cold Blood" and "The Pandorica Opens" for Amy and the Doctor. So the Doctor remembers Rory, but Amy's conscious mind has forgotten him - very, very important to keep in mind for the next chapter.  
And I'm sorry I lied and said Lily would come in this chapter, I had to review the pacing and so now she actually comes in at the start of the next one, which is where the plot really starts to pick up. I wanted to establish a few clues as to what's happening in this chapter, before revealing it in more detail in the next one; I hope you liked it! Please review and tell me what you think of the plot clues/writing/characterisation/dialogue/anything at all, it honestly means the world to hear your responses.


	3. Lily Pond

_Three - Lily Pond_

The Doctor was entirely, one hundred and twelve percent, focused on finding Amy. That was his goal, and he was definitely going to succeed, because he was the Doctor and she was his best friend and he would always find his way back to her, because that was how things worked with the two of them. But it was a little difficult to do in this particular place, a castle where the staircases moved and every corridor he went down seemed identical to the one he'd just turned out of – and he was sure that, by now, Amy had left the landing where he'd specifically told her to wait and was currently wandering about the castle, probably in the exact opposite direction to the one he was going in. Marvellous Amy Pond, the girl who waited for her Raggedy Doctor for years and yet, when she got him, never listened to his instructions.

The energy of the castle, too, was proving very distracting. The Doctor was certain he'd felt this atmosphere before, _somewhere, once, _but he couldn't for the life of him remember where or when. Time travel is tricky business, you know, what with all those different time streams and all of the universe to contend with. He'd seen so much of history and explored so many different worlds that after a while it got hard to remember exact details, and things started to blur together a little bit - Not people, he never forgot the people, for the people were always important and the Doctor always remembered the important things – but abstract things like _sensations_, yes, he was willing to admit that sometimes his memory lapsed slightly with things like that. If only he could find someone to talk to, someone fully human and not painted in oil, they could give him some answers and trigger his memories. The halls and corridors of the castle appeared to be empty, though, and the longer he walked, the more he thought perhaps he'd end up having to wait until morning to find a human to talk to – unless he found the sleeping quarters and woke someone up. Yes, maybe that would work, but, then again, people were easily startled and tended to lash out when they were woken up, and he really didn't feel like having to struggle with someone trying to punch him because he'd woken them from a good dream and they thought he was an intruder. Which he supposed he was, now that he thought about it….

The Doctor found himself suddenly in a library, a very large one with row upon row of books on all sorts of wonderful topics he would have loved to have learnt about, though perhaps not by actually _reading _all of the books, because that would have taken an awfully long time. Nonetheless, the whole room was fascinating – and it was made even more so when he spotted Amy, sitting by the window, red hair spilling over her shoulders and her knees drawn up to her chest, a book open but unread on the table in front of her.

"Amy!" He tried to sound reprimanding but came across instead as just relieved. "I told you to wait on the landing -"

"Excuse me?" Amy said, turning to face him, and something in her eyes made the Doctor realise that he wasn't talking to _his_ Amy, even though this girl in front of him was physically identical to her. She _was_ dressed differently, in a grey school uniform; but she was still wearing a short skirt – this one black and pleated – a fact which the Doctor found mildly amusing.

"Uh… Sorry, I thought you were someone else," he said, smiling awkwardly as he considered what seeing another Amy meant. "Hello, I'm the Doctor."

Not-Amy considered him for a moment, looking wary, before slowly lowering her feet onto the floor and turning fully to face him. "The Doctor?" Yes, with those legs and that tone she was definitely Amy, or a type of Amy anyway, but with an English accent and those unknowing – and more importantly, untrusting – eyes, she also definitely wasn't _his _Amy.

"That's me," he beamed at her now, trying to be as charming as possible. "What's your name?"

"What sort of doctor are you?" Not-Amy avoided the question, asking one of her own instead.

"A good sort," the Doctor answered.

"What's a doctor doing here?" Not-Amy stood up, folding her arms over her chest.

"Uh, I'm looking for a friend," the Doctor told her, honestly, "I'm here for something else, too, I'm sure, but I haven't discovered what that something else _is_, yet." Not-Amy raised her eyebrows, and even though she had her lips pressed together he could see the ghost of a smile on her strange, familiar face. He decided that he liked this version of Amy, too, and continued, "While we're on the topic, actually, would you mind telling me where _here _is?"

That surprised Not-Amy. "You don't know where you are?"

"Well, I know I'm on Earth, somewhere in Scotland," the Doctor said, waving an arm towards the windows. "Not sure what dimension this is, though, to be honest. The TARDIS went a bit funny and, well, we didn't _crash_, but we went off course a bit and ended up in your dining hall, I think..."

"What, you crash landed in the Great Hall?" Not-Amy looked really perplexed now.

"Is that what you call the hall with the big long tables and the floating candles?"

Not-Amy nodded slowly. "Uh… Yes."

"Then yes, we landed in the Great Hall. What a name, certainly makes it sound impressive, doesn't it? Well, it _is_ impressive, with the candles and the sky – How does it do that, by the way?" The Doctor grabbed the sonic screw driver from his jacket pocket and scanned Not-Amy.

She jumped back slightly, knocking into the desk behind her. "What is that?"

"Sonic screw driver, nothing to be afraid of," the Doctor reassured, holding it up to read. "What's your name?"

Not-Amy deliberated for a moment, pressing her lips together so that they formed a thin, white line, before sighing. "Lily Evans."

"Lily Evans," the Doctor repeated after her thoughtfully, "How very interesting… Lily Pond, I see. Mhmm, what a strange thing the universe is. Or, _universes, _as the case may be."

Lily blinked at him. "Are you _mad_?"

He grinned at her. "Most definitely."

Now Lily looked really worried. "How did you get into Hogwarts?"

"Hogwarts, is that where we are? Another splendid name, conjures up all sorts of nasty images. Some schools are pretty horrid though, might as well name them after horrid things," the Doctor said, absently picking a book up off the nearest shelf and flipping through its pages. "Is this a horrid school? It doesn't seem it, but you never can tell within the first hour."

"Are you working for You-Know-Who?" Lily asked suddenly, and her voice was breathless, as though she'd had to force herself to ask the question.

The Doctor pushed the book back onto the shelf, upside down, turning his full attention to Lily, who looked more terrified at her own words now than she had at hearing he'd crashed into her school. "I'm afraid I don't know who that is," he told her, his voice low and serious.

Lily's green eyes remained locked on his, searching for any signs of a lie. "You're not- you're not a Death Eater or anything?"

"Now _that_," the Doctor said, unable to contain himself, "is an absolutely beastly name! A Death Eater, what sort of thing is that? Who would want a title like that? No, no, Lily Evans, I am not a _Death Eater_. I am the Doctor."

"But what do you mean, the Doctor?" Lily glanced from the Doctor to the door and shifted sideways, looking thoroughly uncomfortable. "We use the term healer, only muggles call them doctors."

"Muggles." The Doctor paused, as though the word had made him think of something, and pulled out his sonic to once again check the readings - But then he just shook his head and said lightly, "_So_, how do you do it?"

It was obvious from her blank expression that Lily didn't quite know what he was asking. "Do what?"

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at the sonic, clarifying absently, "Make the roof look like the sky?"

"Oh, uh…" Lily took a moment to regain focus. "It's enchanted. The roof's enchanted to look like the sky outside."

"Enchanted?" The Doctor snapped his head up sharply, staring intently at this girl who wasn't his Amy and yet was so much like her. "Enchanted! Of course!" He yelled, slapping himself on the forehead and making Lily jump. "Of course, stupid Doctor, stupid, stupid, it's so _obvious!_" Lily had begun slowly relaxing, but when the Doctor raced up to her and gripped her shoulders, she froze with all of her muscles tensed. He stared intently into her eyes and declared, "Lily, I need you to take me to the Great Hall."

[-]

Amy wasn't one hundred percent sure what she was looking for – definitely the Doctor, probably someone to tell her where she was, and maybe an exit. Although she could see through the windows set deep in the outside wall of the castle that it was still pouring rain outside, and getting steadily darker, so perhaps an exit wasn't the best thing to be searching for. But the Doctor, yes, that was certainly a good thing to try and find - and someone to give her some answers, too, would be nice. After forty minutes, however, she hadn't found either of those things –or an exit- and had taken to wandering around the seemingly endless corridors without any real sense of purpose.

So when a life size portrait of a rather large lady in a painted archway swung open right in front of her and a boy stepped out of a hole in the wall, she jumped backwards with a sharp gasp. The boy had a smug smile on his face as though he was about to crack a joke, or was laughing about something privately funny, but when he spotted Amy his expression switched first to one of amazement, then confusion, and finally settled on something Amy would have described as cocky adoration; similar to flirty, but with more… feeling, more _history_ than just the usual superficial, lusty type of flirting Amy was used to. But it was his features themselves - the high forehead, the nose, the unruly hair, the _eyes, _framed by round glasses but such a lively hazel– that really affected Amy. There was a pang in her insides, almost a stabbing sort of sensation, that took her breath away, and suddenly she felt so, so sad - as though a whole chunk of her heart had been ripped from her chest. She could sense something just on the edges of her consciousness, something important, so _very_ important, but she had forgotten it and she just couldn't quite grasp the memory…

"Lily," the boy said, his tone light and friendly. "What are you doing out here at this hour? I didn't think you were on rounds this late." Amy couldn't bring herself to answer and the boy stepped closer to her, his brow furrowing with obvious concern. "Lily," he repeated, his voice softer now, "Why are you crying?"

Silently, Amy raised a hand to her cheek and was surprised to find that her fingertips came away wet. She hadn't even noticed her eyes watering, and yet there were tear drops streaming down her face. She looked up at the boy in front of her, more scared of her own emotions than being stranded in a strange castle, and searched his face, his face that was _familiar _and yet so completely new, for answers… But all she got was a strange, uncomfortable, twisting sensation in her stomach. When the boy reached up to brush away her tears with the pad of his thumb she jumped back, wary, and tried to ignore the hurt on his face.

"What's wrong?" He asked, looking genuinely worried.

It was only now that she'd stepped away that she finally noticed what he was wearing. He was dressed in a school uniform, almost exactly like what the boys at her high school had worn – black trousers, a white collared shirt, a loose red and yellow tie - but, unlike the boys that Amy had gone to high school with, this boy was wearing robes over the top of his uniform, black robes that billowed around his ankles, with loose sleeves and a colourful crest embroidered on the front.

"What are you wearing?" The words tumbled off Amy's tongue before she could stop to think about them.

The boy looked almost as affronted as he did confused. "What are _you _wearing?" He retorted.

Amy glanced down at her thoroughly normal attire of red converse, denim skirt, leather jacket and long red scarf, and then back up at the boy. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"Nothing," the boy said quickly, and she watched his gaze wander over her legs before slowly coming to rest back on her face. "I mean, I'm always a fan of you in a short skirt, but – Hang on, why are you talking with a Scottish accent?"

"Do you have something against Scots?" Amy asked defensively, her nostrils flaring.

The boy looked as though he couldn't decide whether to be bemused or afraid. "Lily, what has gotten into you?"

"My name isn't Lily," Amy snapped, resting her hands on her hips. "It's Amy Pond. And who are you?"

Now the boy looked genuinely frightened. "What-But-Who-" He stuttered over the beginnings of all the different questions that were no doubt racing through his mind, his hands held out in front of him as though he wasn't sure whether he wanted to hug her or shake her. He settled on placing one hand on either of her shoulders and asking, "_What_?"

"My _name_ is Amelia Pond," Amy repeated. "Not Lily, not Miss Evans -"

"If you're not Lily," the boy asked, "then how did you know her last name is Evans?"

"Huh? Ohhh," Amy gave a small smile as realisation dawned. "So she's Lily Evans; that's her name. You and the man in the painting, you both thought I was the same person -"

"Lily," the boy said, stubbornly refusing to listen to her insistences that that was not her name, "What's happening? You're really scaring me."

"_You're _scared?" Amy shoved his hands off her shoulders and pushed back. "I've just crash landed from space in to a strange school full of some strange type of humans and people keep calling me by another girl's name and I've lost the Doctor, and you're telling me that _you're _scared? You need to toughen up, whoever you are."

The boy blinked at her, and she could see him deliberating over whether or not she was this Lily girl, playing a trick on him. She couldn't tell whether he'd decided it was a joke but he was going to play along anyway, or if he actually believed her, but she was relieved when he finally said, "James Potter. I'm James Potter."

"Hello, James," she said, "Can you tell me where I am, and then can you help me find the Doctor?"

"As a matter of fact," James said, pulling a folded piece of parchment from inside his robes, "I think I can." Amy's whole face brightened, and she watched intently as he pulled a long, pointed stick from another pocket and tapped the parchment with it, saying, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

In front of her eyes, lines appeared from nowhere and began snaking over the parchment, forming words and pictures and – "Is that a map?" Amy asked.

James had taken a blank bit of parchment from his pocket and now suddenly it was a giant map.

"It's a map of all of Hogwarts, secret tunnels and everything," he told her. When she looked at him blankly he frowned. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – that's what this is, where you are. How did you get here, if you don't know what this is?"

"We crash landed," Amy repeated. "Witchcraft and Wizardry? So all the students here, they're-you're-"

"Witches and wizards, yep. Magic," James told her, grinning as though he was showing off a party trick to impress a pretty girl. Which he kind of was, Amy thought.

"And this is a map of your entire school?" She pointed to the map in front of him, and saw now that the tiny little pictures she'd seen before were of people, and that some of them were _moving_.

"The entire grounds and everyone in them." James pointed to two small figures, and her eyes widened as he read out the names printed above them, "Look, here we are. James Potter and Amy Pond."

"So if I were to walk downstairs -" Amy began.

"-The you on the map would go downstairs, too," James finished.

"Can you see the Doctor?"

James studied the parchment. "What's his name?"

Amy rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh… The Doctor. That's it."

James raised an eyebrow at her, before returning his full attention back to the map. "Oh!" He exclaimed after a few seconds, jabbing the parchment with his index finger. "Here, I've found him!"

Amy leant over his shoulder to see what he was pointing at, and sure enough, there was her Doctor, running along down a corridor and a flight of steps into a room labelled '_Entrance Hall'_. "Who's he with?"

"Lily Evans," James breathed, looking up to stare at Amy. "The girl I thought you were."

"So you believe me now, you believe that I'm Amy Pond?" She asked stubbornly.

"The map never lies," he told her, and then shrugged. "So yeah, I believe you. You're here with me, Amy Pond, and Lily's there with your Doctor. They're heading into the Great Hall."

"Is that the hall with the invisible roof?" Amy asked.

"Enchanted ceiling, yeah," James corrected casually. "You've been there?"

"That's where we crashed," she told him. "That's where the TARDIS is."

"The what?"

"Our space ship," Amy said, putting it as simplistically as possible.

James looked completely stunned. "Your- Your space ship. You came to Hogwarts in a space ship?"

"How can you find that strange?" Amy grumbled, "You're a bloody wizard, nothing should be strange to you."

"Oh, no, this is very strange," James assured her.

Amy shoved her hands into her pockets. "Can you take me to the –what did you call it?- Great Hall?"

James nodded, putting the map and the stick –which she assumed was his wand- back into his pockets. "I can even take a short cut."

[-]

James Potter knew Hogwarts better than almost anyone, and was particularly adept at navigating its tunnels and corridors by the dark of night. Lily Evans, although a perfectly proficient navigator, had not had quite as much experience as James, and was a bit preoccupied with figuring out who the strange man she was guiding through the school was, and whether or not he could really be trusted.

And so it was that Lily Evans and the Doctor entered the Great Hall, but only made it half way to the TARDIS before James Potter and Amy Pond burst in behind them.

"Okay kids," Amy declared, "this is where it gets complicated."

* * *

**a.n. **I've got uni and life stuffs to do now, so it'll probably be a week before the next update. I was going to hold off, but I thought you wonderful readers deserved Lily and James to come into the story now. So here you go! Please review and let me know what you think; one hundred percent honestly, it's so much easier to write when I have people's reviews to inspire me. So, the more reviews, the faster the update. :)  
And for those of you reading my Lily and James story "Infatuation", there'll be an update for that hopefully tomorrow, maybe the next day.  
Thanks so much darlings!


	4. Glasses are Cool

**a.n. **Edited seventh of August 2012 because I'm an idiot and didn't re-read before posting, only to realise that some sentences were missing half their content and the grammar was just bloody shocking. Sorry guys, I won't be making that mistake ever again!

* * *

_Four – Glasses are Cool_

Amy skidded to a halt just inside the door, and James nearly ran into her in his haste to get inside. He appeared completely gobsmacked as he looked from Lily, who had stopped dead in her tracks, to Amy and back again. Lily, for her part, had gone as white as a sheet.

The Doctor gave Amy a knowing smile and said, "Didn't I tell you to wait on that landing, Pond?"

"We both knew that was never going to happen," Amy rolled her eyes, before letting her gaze settle on Lily, who was still standing frozen in the middle of the hall. "Doctor, why is there another me?"

"Amy Pond, meet Lily Evans," the Doctor said jovially, waving a hand between the two girls. "Lily, meet Amy. You might notice that the two of you share an uncanny resemblance -"

"They're identical!" James burst out suddenly, as though he'd been stuck in suspended animation and had only just regained the ability to function. He seemed to wrench his eyes away from the girls only with great effort. "Whatis going on?!"

The Doctor turned his focus to James, and for the briefest of moments his features contorted into a pained expression – but then, as quickly as Amy could blink, he was back to being perfectly neutral, observing James with nothing more than his usual polite interest. "Hullo, I'm the Doctor," he greeted. "Who are you?"

"James Potter," James said with surprising clarity.

"Nice to meet you, James," the Doctor said. He appeared to be done with the conversation after that, because he spun on his heel and walked back up to the TARDIS without another word.

"Doctor, what's happened?" Amy asked, striding purposefully up to him, pausing only briefly to look Lily up and down as she passed.

"What year is it?" the Doctor called absently over his shoulder as he jumped up to the front door of the TARDIS and clicked his fingers.

The door swung open instantly, and Amy watched Lily and James exchange a surprised glance before realising that the Doctor had been addressing them.

"Oh, uh, it's 1978," James said quickly.

They heard the Doctor clap his hands together as he stepped into the TARDIS. "Ah, wonderful! Marvellous decade, the seventies, lots of fun stuff happening on Earth- more fun stuff happening on Jupiter's largest moon, too, but that's another story -" His voice faded away as he ventured deeper inside the phone box.

"But I wasn't _born_ until nineteen eighty nine," Amy called after him, frowning.

The Doctor poked his head out of the door, and she was amused to see he was wearing a pair of ridiculous 3D glasses. "In your time stream, you weren't born until then," the Doctor informed her, "But in this time stream you were born in -"

"1960," Lily finished his sentence, and he flashed her a smile before disappearing again.

"So, are you two magic then?" James asked, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his trousers and trying to appear casual as he made his way over to stand with Lily. "Like, a witch and a wizard from another galaxy or something?"

Lily's eyes lit up at that, as though she'd suddenly realised something. "Have you used a time turner to get here?" She pointed at Amy and asked in an awed voice, "Are you _me_ from the _future_?"

"No, I'm not from your future... Maybe I'm you, or you're me, but I don't know how," Amy said. "And I'm human."

"We're human, too," James pointed out. "You mean you're not magical – you're a muggle."

Amy narrowed her eyes at him impatiently, clearly not a fan of the term. "No, I'm not magical."

"And what about the Doctor, what's he?" Lily questioned, casting a furtive glance at the bright blue phone box.

"A Time Lord," Amy informed them, just as he stepped back out of the TARDIS, still wearing the white cardboard and cellophane glasses. She shook her head, barely containing her laughter. "You look ridiculous!"

"Glasses are cool," the Doctor said, adjusting them on his nose and beaming at James, who fiddled with the frame of his own round, black spectacles. "Ooh, and these glasses are _very _cool."

"Why, because they've got different coloured lenses?"

"Because they make my cheekbones look marvellous."

Amy closed her eyes and took a deep breath in through her nose. "Seriously, Doctor?" When she saw the smile he was wearing, though, she couldn't help but let out a peel of laughter.

Lily and James shared a glance, looking incredibly worried. "So what's a Time Lord?" James asked, trying and failing to sound nonchalant.

"I'm an alien," the Doctor said. "From your point of view, anyway. I'm a good one, though; I have lots of neat alien tricks."

"You still haven't explained how we got here," Amy said impatiently. "Or why there's another me, with a different name… Who's a witch."

The Time Lord walked down to his companion, holding onto his suspenders. She couldn't quite take him seriously in those glasses, but when he spoke his voice was low and left no room for argument. "Something went wrong. Time's gone all wibbly – but not just time; space, too. There was a jump, across the void, and now we're here -"

"Time's gone wibbly?" James's tone was questioning. "What does that even mean?"

"It means that Amy and I are in the wrong universe," the Doctor answered.

"The wrong universe…" Amy stared up at him. "But, Doctor, do you mean we're -"

"In an alternate reality, yes. With an alternate you, and an alternate -" he stopped himself suddenly, his eyes flickering to James, and seemed to grimace before continuing on normally, "- everything. Everything is different here, your entire life has been altered."

"You mean we're the same person?" Amy asked, gesturing to a bewildered Lily.

"You're different versions of the same person," the Doctor clarified. "There are millions upon millions of universes out there, all with different versions of the same people, but changed by their choices and the choices of those who came before them. In our universe, Amy, you grew up with a crack in the universe in your bedroom wall, and in this universe you're a- a witch. Something equally spectacular, but entirely different circumstances. You see?"

Amy and Lily eyed each other.

"Not really, no," Lily said slowly. "You're asking us to believe that you're an alien from another dimension of time and space, who just happened to crash your space ship into the biggest wizarding school in Britain, right as You-Know-Who is-is…"

She broke off under the penetrating gaze of the Doctor, who had pushed the 3D glasses up onto the top of his head and walked over to her. "I have told you already, Lily Evans, that I am not involved with whoever You-Know-Who is, and if he is as much of a threat as you make him out to be then it is very important that you start trusting me."

Lily looked over to James, who stepped up protectively and jabbed the Doctor in the chest with his finger. "We have a right to be wary, you know. Everyone says a war is coming, excuse us for finding it a bit hard to believe in travel across dimensions."

"How could we have got into alternate universe?" Amy asked, hoisting herself up to sit on top of one of the tables. "Does it have to do with the crack in my wall?"

"Yes and no," the Doctor said, beginning to pace. "We've fallen through a hole in the universe. Something sucked us in here, and now that the TARDIS is cut off from our universe she's lost her power."

Amy frowned. "But you said earlier there was something scrambling the signals, and you said once you figured that out we could go -"

"Yes, well, that was before I realised we were in an alternate universe. The TARDIS feeds off the energy of our universe, it's her life source, and without it she can't function… But there's something else here, something incredibly powerful – your magic," the Time Lord gestured towards Lily and James, who were unmoving, "and that's giving her a different kind of power, but she's not quite sure what to do with it."

"You keep talking about your spaceship as if it's a person," Lily said, her tone questioning. "As if it's a girl."

"_That's _your ship?" James asked, pointing to the TARDIS. "What is that?"

"Isn't she _brilliant_!" the Doctor exclaimed, patting the side of the phone box affectionately.

"It's a police phone box," Lily said, walking over with James close on her heels. "Or is that just a disguise?"

The Doctor clapped a hand on her shoulder and said, almost proudly, "You're brilliant, Lily, did you know that?" She just blushed in response, which made James glare at the Doctor, who continued obliviously, "Yes, she's supposed to blend in with the surroundings of wherever we land, but the Chameleon Circuit is broken and she's stuck in this form. I've grown quite fond of it…"

"You're still calling it a she!" James was looking at the Doctor as though he was completely mad.

"She's his one true love," Amy supplied, swanning over and grinning cheekily at the Doctor, who looked unimpressed.

"But how can this be a space ship?" Lily walked up and around the TARDIS, running a hand lightly along the back of the blue box. "It's- small."

"Ah. Well, it _looks _small…" The Doctor's lips tugged up into a smile as he pushed the door open, revealing the interior of the TARDIS. Lily's face went slack as she peered inside. "Go on," the Time Lord said excitedly, waving her in.

Lily, apparently unable to deny her curiosity, disappeared inside, the Doctor following after her. Amy smirked at James and grabbed his elbow, pulling him towards her.

"Come on," she said, pushing him in front of herself. "Come see what all the fuss is about."

Lily was standing on the staircase, spinning in a slow circle and trying to take in her surroundings, when Amy violently pushed James through the door. For a moment he just stumbled forward clumsily, his mouth opening and closing without any noise coming out – and then he said, "It's bigger on the inside."

The Doctor beamed at him. "Much better reaction than last time!"

Both Amy and James looked at him, confused, but Lily spoke up before they had a chance to question him. "It's like an undetectable extension charm, but-"

"But much more impressive, as it's actually an entirely separate dimension," the Doctor finished, pulling a lever down and pulling the screen towards himself. "Your magic is everywhere, look at this place! It's practically overflowing with it… Hundreds of years and millions of witches and wizards casting spells here, this place is like a magnet for anomalies. If there was a tear in the universe it's no wonder we got pulled here!"

"You said something about a void earlier, Doctor –what's that?" Amy leant back against the railing around the centre console.

"Imagine the universe as a great, big soap bubble with lots of smaller soap bubbles sticking the sides of it."

"Okay." Amy nodded, "So our universe is like the big bubble and we kind of… slipped through into this smaller bubble?"

"Yes! Well… No, it's nothing like that, actually. Ignore the bubble comparison," the Doctor said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Uhm, no, you can think of it like that if it helps."

"Doctor," Amy groaned.

"Okay, hang on, let me think of how to explain – Don't touch that!" The Doctor whacked James's hand away from where it was hovering above a yellow button. James flinched, and Lily looked at him disapprovingly. "Sorry, but you can't just go pressing buttons willy-nilly in here, she's a very delicate thing and needs an expert to fly her-"

Amy let out a snort of laughter, and the Doctor looked slightly offended. "River flies the TARDIS better than you, Doctor."

"River's a show off, and she does not," the Doctor said sulkily, moving around to the other side of the console and turning a dial. "As I was _saying_, the void is the space between universes. Parallel universes, running in parallel lines, never intersecting, never touching, _until _there's a shift. Some huge event that's large enough to rip a hole in the universe."

"So it _is _like the crack in my bedroom?" Amy asked.

"No. Yes. Sort of… This hole, this crack, it's not swallowing the universe, it's not erasing things -" The Time Lord's eyes flitted across to James, who was standing close to Lily, before he turned his gaze back to Amy. "It's displacing them. Swapping things from all different universes and all different times. Like a- like a plug hole! And we were _probably_ pulled here because of your connection with Lily."

"So, hypothetically, could I have just as easily been pulled into your universe, to where Amy was?" Lily asked, wandering around the console and peering down into the corridors stretching away from it.

"Hypothetically, yes, but realistically, your odds were much slimmer. It is possible, because of the magical methods of travel, I'd assume you'd have some of the features that cracks in the universe find appealing, although I'm a much more complicated space-time event and much more attractive." The Doctor pushed his glasses back down onto his nose and stepped up to Amy, grabbing her hand and holding it up in front of his face.

James continued to follow Lily around, but Amy noticed that he was keeping his distance from the centre console, even though he kept sending curious glances in its direction. "Apparition, you mean?"

"What's apparition?" Amy asked, even as she raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, who was fiddling with her fingers and turning her hand around between his own.

"It's kind of like jumping from one place to another, using magic. It's not possible inside Hogwarts, though. This is one of the most fiercely guarded places in the wizarding world, which is why it's even stranger that you got in here," Lily told her, stopping just beside them. "What are you doing?"

"Residue from the void," the Time Lord explained, dropping Amy's hand and shoving the 3D glasses onto her nose. "See?"

He waved his hand in front of her, and Amy could see a green, almost spotty substance floating around him, trailing slightly behind his movements. She looked down at her own hands, and saw the same substance floating all around herself. "This is left over from when the TARDIS slipped from our universe to this one?"

"Exactly! With those glasses on we can see the two universes, overlapping, sort of. Not really, exactly, but that's residue from the void and it shows us what's not meant to be in this universe."

Amy took the glasses off and passed them to Lily, who immediately scanned over her and the Doctor. "So how do we get back?"

"Don't worry, I have a plan for that," the Doctor said cheerily, skipping to the console door.

"What plan?" James asked, taking the glasses off Lily and comparing his own hand to Amy's.

"Haven't got the details worked out yet, I haven't finished talking." The Doctor spun around to grin at the three of them. "Who's in charge around here?"

[-]

Amy watched the Doctor and Lily walking up ahead along the third floor corridor. The Doctor was bouncing slightly as he walked, which Amy knew meant he was excited about what was happening, and the two of them were deep in conversation about the classes Lily was taking and how amazed she had been when she got a letter on her eleventh birthday telling her she was a witch, and what planets were the Doctor's favourites and how he looked quite good for his age of nine-hundred plus.

"Ergh, is she actually flirting with him?" James asked, sounding disgusted.

Amy smirked at him. "Jealous, are you?"

James tried to shrug casually, but instead the gesture came off as slightly injured. "If I've learnt anything about Lily Evans after being at school with her for six years, it's that she's going to do what she wants no matter what I say."

"Good to hear," Amy said, smiling broader now.

"So you two really are alike then," James said, just a hint of flirtation to his words.

Amy observed the slender form of her physical double in front of them, and said thoughtfully, "I don't know. I haven't had much of a chance to get to know her."

James laughed. "If you two are alike, I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a little bit terrified."

"Are you insulting us?" Amy said in mock offence, punching him lightly in the arm.

James ducked away, but both of them were laughing now. "I'm not that stupid! Two of you could kill me."

"Oooh, that's nice to know," Amy joked.

Lily threw them a glance over her shoulder, and James yelled out, "Yes, Evans, we're talking about you!"

"You better be saying nice things to my alternate self!" She called back, and Amy saw the Doctor's shoulders shake as he chuckled.

A few moments passed in relatively comfortable silence, until James asked, "So what's happening with you and the Doctor?"

"What do you mean?" Amy lifted an eyebrow tensely.

"Well, are you two a thing, or -"

"We travel together," Amy told him, trying to inject as much finality into her voice as possible. "I've known him practically my whole life, but I had to wait a long time for him, and he's only known me for a little of his… It's- It's a long story."

"I know all about waiting," James said, and Amy didn't miss how his eyes lingered on Lily, and how the corners of his mouth turned down at the sight of hers breaking into a smile at something the Doctor said.

Amy felt something tug on her heartstrings, and for a moment she felt that crushing sadness threatening to overwhelm her again. "Oh, don't worry about that," she said, knocking her elbow against his. "The Doctor has that effect on women. But he's taken. At least, I think he's taken."

James flashed her a dazzling smile. "Nothing's ever easy in time travel, I suppose."

"Amazing, yes. Easy, definitely not!" Amy paused, and then dared to ask, "So, are you and Lily… _a thing_?" She tried to make the question a little jokey by mimicking his phrase from before.

Unfortunately, she hadn't noticed that Lily and the Doctor had stopped walking and were within ear shot now. They both turned to face them, and Amy saw a pink tinge to Lily's cheeks. The downfalls of being ginger, she thought.

"Oh, uh, he's a… friend," Lily said, her tone a very forced sort of polite that just made it sound awkward.

"Boyfriend," James corrected, with an immodest shrug of his shoulders and a pointed look at the Doctor.

"Kind of, boyfriend," Lily said quickly, half over the top of him, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Lily," he said warningly, as though she was just being silly and had forgotten something that she should have easily remembered, like her keys.

"Alright," Amy cut in, "no time for a domestic, you two. Is this Dumbledore's office?"

Just as she spoke, an elderly man wearing robes of shining silver, with a white beard hanging to his waist and half-moon spectacles in front of bright blue eyes, appeared from around the corner. "Oh," he said, sounding only slightly surprised, "A welcoming committee."

The man smiled at them all as he walked to the gargoyle they were stopped in front of .

"Professor Dumbledore," the Time Lord said cheerily, stepping forward and extending a hand. "Hello, I'm the Doctor."


	5. Kindred Spirits

**a.n. **I made some huge, glaringly obviously errors in the last chapter, so I'd really appreciate it if you went back and re-read it. If you can't be bothered re-reading the whole thing, I think most of the editing was done after the point where they all step into the TARDIS, so perhaps you can just read on from there?  
And here's a new chapter for you, I hope you enjoy it! Please review and let me know what you think of the characters and the plot development and basically any thoughts you have at all about the story. And a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who's reading and reviewing and responding to this story, I'm so happy you're appreciating and enjoying this crazy little mix of universes I've made.

* * *

_Five – Kindred Spirits_

It wasn't every day that the Doctor got to meet someone so like himself; someone incredibly old, incredibly wise, incredibly powerful and incredibly rare. In fact, it was a very uncommon occurrence – so uncommon as to perhaps deserve the term exceptional. And so, when the Time Lord did happen to find someone else in all of time and space who might, perhaps, have some sort of insight into what it was like to be him, he – understandably – got quite excited.

"You are _beautiful_!" He cooed at the old, fragile bird perched on his arm. The bird gave a very weak _caw _in response, and malted a few more of its remaining dull red feathers.

As soon as they'd been let into Dumbledore's office, the Doctor had practically ran to the perch beside the Headmaster's desk, nearly tripping over his own feet in his excitement. The phoenix sitting there had, thankfully, seemed just as excited to see the Doctor as he was to see it; it had craned its neck and spread it wings to flutter slowly over and land on the Time Lord's forearm.

Dumbledore seemed a little surprised at the bird's ease with the new visitor, raising an eyebrow at the two of them as they exchanged words and squawks. "It seems you have an admirer, Doctor," he said in a tone of reverent amusement.

"He's amazing!" The Doctor exclaimed, beaming across at Dumbledore. "Absolutely incredible, I haven't seen a phoenix for centuries -"

"That's a phoenix?" Amy asked, peering around the large circular office. Through the many large windows lining the outside wall she could see the rain still bucketing down, and thought for a moment how lucky they were that the TARDIS had landed indoors. "Aren't they supposed to be all big and majestic?"

"For most of their lives, yes. But this one's dying," the Doctor told her, gently petting the bird's head. "He'll regenerate soon."

"Regenerate, like you?"

"A phoenix bursts into flames when they die," Dumbledore explained as he settled into a large seat behind his desk. The man in the almost-life size portrait hanging above his head shuffled in his painted armchair, lifting an eyelid and peering down at the new guests with interest. "And from the ashes, they are reborn."

"Many similarities between phoenix and Time Lords, actually," the Doctor said to the room at large, but from his tone he could have just as easily been talking to himself, or just to the bird who was nipping affectionately at the sleeve of his tweed jacket. "But where we can travel through time and space they can fly through the air. Oh, and of course there's the healing property of their tears – _And _they have red feathers!" The bird made a noise at that, sort of between a caw and a hoot, and the Doctor sighed and tugged on his fringe. "Well, thank you for saying so, but really, I've never got to be a ginger before and -"

"Are you talking to the bird?" James asked. When the Doctor didn't reply he turned to Amy and repeated, "Is he talking to the bird? Are they actually having a conversation?"

"Probably," Amy shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know, I'm a bit caught up on the whole 'wanting to be ginger' part -"

"I speak phoenix," the Time Lord told them simply, holding his arm out so the old bird could shuffle back across to his perch. "Fawkes says congratulations on getting Head Boy, James, it's nice to see you up here and not getting in trouble for pranking."

James just stared at the Doctor, absolutely gobsmacked. More and more of the portraits around the room were beginning to stir and wake up from their slumber, and a few of them were popping into their neighbour's frames to whisper about the group on the ground below them. Amy watched them with great interest, but the Doctor paid them barely any heed, instead darting between the spindly legged tables scattered around the room, sonicing the delicate silver instruments that were whirring away on their tops. He aimed his screwdriver at a small round dome with a series of spouts, and jumped backwards when it emitted a small puff of smoke.

"Careful!" Amy admonished, feeling slightly on edge with so many sets of eyes watching them.

The Doctor flashed her a confident smile and put his sonic back into his pocket. "Very polite bird you have, Professor," he said to Dumbledore, who smiled fondly at the phoenix.

"Thank you, Doctor. Normally he's a bit more reserved than this, especially towards the end of his life cycle," Dumbledore informed him. "But he seems to have taken quite a liking to you."

"Very good judges of character, phoenix," the Doctor said, hooking his thumbs under his suspenders and rolling forwards onto the balls of his feet. "So, now that you know Amy and I aren't a threat – can you tell us what's happened that could have torn a hole in the universe?"

Dumbledore blinked once, and then said in a very calm voice, "Hogwarts has played host to many extraordinary guests over the years, but never have we had visitors from another dimension."

"We're honoured to be the first," the Doctor smiled sagely.

Dumbledore observed him from behind his spectacles, his hands steepled underneath his chin, in front of his long, white beard. "And you don't know how it is that you came to be here?"

"I have a few theories, but no, I'm not quite sure. Yet." The Doctor picked up an hour glass filled with sand and a green liquid, which was flowing slower than expected down through the funnel into the bottom vial. He surreptitiously slipped his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and scanned it. "It may have something to do with the connection between Lily and Amy… That, and the fact that this entire school has so much magical energy it's a miracle you haven't had a TARDIS crash on the grounds before now." Fawkes gave a squawk, and the Doctor shook his head, flashing an embarrassed smile. "No, we didn't exactly crash, the hall is fine -"

"A connection between Miss Evans and Miss Pond?" Dumbledore repeated, interrupting the Doctor's conversation with the phoenix.

Lily came to stand beside Amy, and the Doctor was amused to note how they both stood with their weight on one leg, a hip kicked out and their arms folded across their midsections. It really was remarkable.

"That's why Lily and I look so alike," Amy piped up, gesturing to her physical double. "Because I'm her, from an alternate reality."

Dumbledore's periwinkle blue gaze fell on Amy, and she swallowed down a lump in her throat as she felt herself being appraised.

"Amy Pond," the Headmaster said, "Tell me, are you as brilliant in your universe as Miss Evans is in ours?"

Lily blushed at his words, while Amy just stared, obviously caught off guard by the unexpected praise.

"She's marvellous!" The Doctor supplied, his voice radiating warmth and pride from across the other side of the room, where he was now observing a large, moving map of surprisingly accurate constellations. "Mad, impossible Amelia Pond. The Girl Who Waited."

His eyes met Amy's, and she gave him such a genuinely caring and tender smile that for a moment he forgot about the others in the room and thought of only her, his dear Amelia Pond, who had run away with him the night before her wedding, and of how he seemed to keep getting her into trouble. How he had gotten Rory into trouble, how he got all of them into trouble eventually, everyone who – No. No, he couldn't allow himself to start thinking about that, because then he hurt and then he got angry and it was never good when the Doctor was angry. So he forced himself to focus on Amy, and only Amy.

He leapt across the room to her, took both of her hands in his and said quietly, "I'm going to get us out of here. I am going to get you home. I promise."

"I know," she said, her tone definitive and her smile completely assured. "I trust you, Doctor. Besides, you said yourself that this seems like a pretty wonderful place, I wouldn't mind hanging around for a little bit. It is my homeland, after all; even if it's a magicalScotland."

The Doctor gasped suddenly, realisation dawning on his face. "Pond, you are brilliant!"

He grabbed the end of her scarf and waved it in her face. She giggled, pushing the ticklish material away and grabbing at his arm. "Stop that! Why am I brilliant this time?"

"Because what if the thing that caused the hole in the universe wasn't just an isolated event on this side of the void?" The Doctor jumped up onto a ladder hanging off the bookcase in the wall, perusing the spines of the books as he continued with a steady stream of speech. "What if it was a deliberate plot, a deliberate hole – What if someone from this side needed to bring something across the universes, for some reason, and so they found a way to create a tear… But no, who would have the technology or the power for that? The Daleks are the only ones, and they -" He froze, his eyes glued to the hourglass he'd been observing earlier. "That hour glass, it's going so slowly it's almost stationary. It wasn't like that before."

"The more stimulating the conversation, the slower it flows," Dumbledore explained. As if to showcase his point, as he spoke the granules of sand began to drop significantly faster.

"It measures time on value, not length," the Doctor murmured, jumping down and going over to the hour glass. "Where are my glasses?"

"Here," James said, grabbing the white frames from the pocket of his robes and tossing them to the Doctor, who caught them in mid air and put them on.

"Aha!" He exclaimed, picking the hour glass up and turning it in his hands. "Where did you get this, Professor?"

"It was a gift from a colleague," Dumbledore told him, seeming unfussed with the way this stranger was handling his belongings. Something told the Doctor that Albus Dumbledore had a very open mind.

"Professor Slughorn," Lily said, watching the hourglass flip as the Doctor passed it back and forth between his left and right hands. "He has one just like it in his office…"

"Yes, it was a gift from Horace Slughorn, our Potions professor."

The Doctor held the hourglass up. "Do you mind if I hold onto this?"

Dumbledore shook his head, and the Time Lord put the timepiece into his jacket pocket, and then the 3D glasses in after it. Amy wondered what else he kept in there.

"Right, now, tell me more about this magical school." He settled down into the arm chair on the other side of the Headmaster's desk, crossing one of his long legs over the other and smiling expectantly.

Dumbledore gave a flick of his wand, and three extra armchairs appeared behind Lily, James and Amy. Grateful for the rest, Amy sank down into the chair and closed her eyes for a moment, relishing how soft the cushions were. Lily settled back into her chair, too, but James still looked tense, his posture rigidly straight against the high back of the chair.

"Hogwarts is magnificent," Dumbledore informed the Doctor, "The oldest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world, and it's the safest place in all of Britain… But, in recent times, our defences have had to be amplified as the threat of danger increases. There's a war coming, and the students are one of the first targets…"

"Dangerous, I love dangerous," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "A war, a war over what? What are you fighting for? Ohwait, I know, this has to do with that You-Know-Who fellow you keep mentioning, doesn't it?"

"Voldemort," Dumbledore said, making Lily and James flinch. "His name is Voldemort."

"And he's so terrifying that you don't even want to say his name," the Doctor said thoughtfully, turning to the two students. "What has he done? What is he doing?"

Lily shuffled one of her feet against the carpet. James reached out to clasp her hand, intertwining their fingers supportively; although she didn't quite seem to notice.

"He wants to restore _purity_," Lily told the Doctor, drawing out the last word sarcastically.

"Purity?" Amy questioned.

"Blood purity," Dumbledore supplied. "Magical talents can be passed on through blood lines of one or both parents or, more rarely, spontaneously appear in a child with two muggle parents. Voldemort and his supporters are of the belief that the teaching of magical arts should remain only amongst those with full magical blood lineage."

"What a ridiculous idea," the Doctor scoffed. "Imagine how quickly the gene pool would thin out! So he's planning on wiping out all of the non-pure bloods that have already been born, and starting a master race – Ah, Winston would be furious if he heard someone was trying this again."

"Winston Churchill?" Lily asked, eyes wide. "Do you know Winston Churchill?"

"We're quite good mates," the Doctor said, fiddling with his bow tie.

"Mhmm, we had to help him in World War Two," Amy added, "…With the Daleks."

Could that have just been coincidence, though; the Daleks being there, and the tear in the universe now? Her eyes met the Doctors, and they had a moment of silent communication and agreement; best not to worry until they had more information.

"What are Daleks?" Lily asked, thoroughly intrigued now.

"The alien version of Voldemort," the Doctor said, rushing into hurried apologies when Lily and James flinched again. "Sorry! Sorry, must get used to that whole name thing – Uh, Daleks are heartless creatures who want to take over the whole universe. My mortal enemies, as it were."

"That sounds serious." James frowned. "Do you think they're involved with this, bringing you across the void?"

The Doctor wrung his hands together. "Er, no. No, definitely not. Highly unlikely. Probably nothing to worry about." Fawkes cawed and stretched his neck out towards the Doctor, who rolled his eyes but patted the bird's head anyway. "Okay, it is a bit suspicious. _But _there's no need to worry about anything, I have it all under control. I've beaten the Daleks loads of times before."

"Have you ever fought a wizard before, Doctor?" Dumbledore asked sombrely.

"Can't say I have…"

"Well, if you're going to stay here until your ship is repaired, then I would perhaps suggest that you and Miss Pond have some training in the art of defensive magic," the Headmaster said.

"Yes, marvellous idea!" The Doctor stood up and did a twirl. "This Defence Against the Dark Arts stuff sounds fascinating! What's first?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Perhaps some rest is in order, and we can begin in the morning?"

The Doctor followed his gaze across to the three young adults, who were all struggling to keep their eyes open now that it seemed there was no immediate threat to their safety.

"Ah, sleep," the Time Lord sighed, "You humans do need a lot of it, don't you? Righto then, come along Pond, back to the TARDIS."

"You're welcome to sleep in the Gryffindor house dorms with Mr Potter and Miss Evans, if you would prefer," Dumbledore offered.

The Doctor paused. While there was no where else he would rather be than in his TARDIS, using the few remaining hours of the night to try and figure out how to get her working again, maybe Amy wanted to spend more time with Lily, to find out more about her alternate life… He looked to his companion, silently telling her the choice was hers.

Amy glanced over at the couple beside her, vigorously nodding their heads.

"Yeah, come to the dorm with us! You have to meet everyone, they'll never believe us if we tell them without you there -"

Amy glanced back to the Doctor, and he saw her resolve wavering. He didn't want to stop her from doing what she wanted – because that was one of the Doctor's things he tried very hard not to do, to make people do things they didn't want to just because they thought it was what he wanted – and smiled encouragingly.

"What if you come get us in the morning?" Amy offered a compromise to James and Lily. "First thing."

"Bright and early!" The Doctor sang, relieved that Amy had chosen to come back to the TARDIS with him. Because he didn't like the sound of this impending war, and he certainly didn't want her running off on her own.

"Before breakfast?" James asked.

Lily added, "Because everyone's going to freak out when they see your ship in the Great Hall."

"As Head Boy and Girl, you exert a certain amount of authority," Dumbledore addressed the students. "I will inform all of the staff of the situation at hand now, and the Heads of House will pass the information on to their students before breakfast in the morning, but you two shall be left in charge of Gryffindor House. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes, Professor," Lily and James said in unison.

"Right then, glad that's all sorted," the Doctor said brightly, waving Amy down the staircase after Lily and James and turning back to give Fawkes one last pat on the head.

"Doctor," Dumbledore began quietly, walking around the desk to join him. "I wonder if I might have a moment of your time."

"Of course! You can have a few moments actually, all strung together. Isn't that nice?"

"When you landed here, I had just been called to the Ministry of Magic, our government body, on urgent business. I fear that you and Amy may not be the only things from your universe to have fallen through into ours." Professor Dumbledore looked older without the teenagers here, the Doctor thought; older and more worried than he would have liked.

"No, I think not," he agreed gravely, absentmindedly fingering the hour glass in his pocket.

"Have you ever seen this before, Doctor?" Dumbledore asked, retrieving from his pocket a small black box, with familiar symbols carved into it.

"That's a Home Box," the Time Lord said, squinting at it. He held his hands out, moving the palms towards each other slowly. "But it's all –smallish."

"We've shrunk it down, so that it's easier to hide," Dumbledore explained. "The task of un-coding what it says has been entrusted to me."

"Ah, well I'm afraid you won't get anywhere with that. That's Old High Gallifreyan, language of the Time Lords." The Doctor rolled his tongue, and then held out a hand, asking if he could have a closer look. Dumbledore handed it over and waited patiently for the Doctor to speak. When he did, it was with a huge sigh. "It says, 'Hello Sweetie'."


	6. Keep Calm, I'm the Doctor

_Six – Keep Calm, I'm the Doctor_

In her bedroom back in Leadworth, Amy had a lot of things to showcase her personality. The walls were painted blue, to reflect the sky outside, because Amy wasn't one for confined spaces; one of them was covered in a collage of photos of her and Mels and the crazy fun times they'd had growing up; there were books of far away places and fairy tale adventures, fascinating Roman history and ancient myths; there were fairy lights strung across the headboard of her bed, so she'd always have the stars close by - and there was the Raggedy Doctor and his space ship, drawn on paper, made out of toilet-paper-rolls with a cardboard TARDIS, knitted out of wool and soft to cuddle with as she went to sleep and wondered if tonight he'd come back for her. It was her life, her childhood, a beautiful representation of everything she held dear.

Her room on the TARDIS was a bit less cluttered. There was a calendar on the wall that she used to mark not the dates – because that was just far too confusing - but the number of days she was with the Doctor; there was a wardrobe and chest of drawers against the back wall, filled with brand new clothes, and an old-fashioned full length mirror beside them; a glow-in-the-dark solar system (though not the one Earth was a part of) was stuck to the ceiling; her drawings, of the places they went and the people they met, were pinned on a gigantic cork board beside the calendar - and there was a bunk-bed, a big wooden bunk-bed with a ladder at the foot and two mattresses with two sets of crisp white sheets and two soft white pillows.

Why were there two beds?

Amy rolled over on the bottom bunk to gaze at her sketches, and found her eyes drawn to one in particular, from when the Doctor had taken her to Venice. It was just a simple sketch of the canals, nothing special, but she felt like there was something _missing _from it. Like she'd completely failed to capture the scene.

The thought just annoyed her though, so she swung her legs over the side of the bed and decided to forget about it. After all, there was a whole magical world – _literally, _magical - waiting for her just outside the TARDIS, so what did one niggling feeling really matter?

When she wandered into the TARDIS console room twenty minutes later she found the Doctor staring very intently at the screen, his eyebrows knitted into a frown and his lips pursed.

"What's up?" She asked, sashaying over to him and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Good morning, Amy," he greeted, "Sleep well?"

Before she could get a good look at what he was actually doing, he pressed a few keys on the type writer and the screen went blank. Amy rolled her eyes at his secrecy and stepped back to let him turn to face her.

"Why did you give me a bunk-bed to sleep in?"

"Because bunk-beds are cool." The Doctor grinned.

"But it's got two beds, why would I need two beds?" Amy persisted. "Doesn't it seem like a bit of a waste of space…?"

"No, that's actually why bunk beds are great; they give you two beds in the space of one, _plus _you get to climb a ladder to reach your mattress! Isn't that _awesome!_" The Doctor tweaked his bow tie and cleared his throat. "Besides, space isn't really an issue in the TARDIS. Although we did lose a few rooms when we crossed the void, she must have had to burn them up -"

A knock on the front door cut his explanation short. He skipped down the steps to the door and flung it open, calling out a _Hello! _to whoever it was that had knocked.

"Hello, Doctor. I hope I haven't interrupted you," Amy heard Dumbledore's voice drift through the open door. "It seems that word travels fast here at Hogwarts; most of the students are here already, waiting patiently for you and Miss Pond to appear."

"Ah. Yes, I can see that." The Doctor craned his neck outside and gave a spirited wave.

Amy heard a sudden flood of whispers, and stepped down to the Doctor to see what was happening. She peered over his shoulder, and saw that the four long tables in the hall were filled with students, all wearing the same black robes that James had been in last night, and all staring intently at the TARDIS; some at the back were kneeling on their seats to try and get a better look.

"Shall we come and say hello?" The Doctor asked Dumbledore.

With an affectionate smile, Dumbledore nodded and stepped back. "Yes, I think that's a good idea."

So the Doctor and Amy exited the TARDIS and followed Professor Dumbledore up to a podium standing at the front and centre of the raised platform. The roar of whispers gave way to a reverential silence, and Amy raised her eyebrows at the Doctor, who quirked a brow and smiled reassuringly at her before turning to gaze out at the sea of faces below them.

Dumbledore took his place behind the podium and addressed the students in a booming voice, "We have some guests who will be staying with us for an indefinite amount of time. They may attend some of your classes, and please do cooperate and answer any questions they have." He turned to the Doctor and his companion and asked, "Would you like to say a short introduction?"

"Well it's lovely to meet you all!" The Doctor exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide, almost as though he wanted to hug the entire student body. "I'm the Doctor, this is Amy, and this is the TARDIS," he pointed to the blue phone box, "Stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Any questions?"

There was a moment of silence, where the students just gaped up at the strange man standing in front of them and pulling at his bow-tie; and then a boy with shaggy, black hair and a loose red tie called out, "Is it true that you're Evans from another dimension?"

Lily, who was sitting opposite the boy, scowled at him and hissed something that Amy didn't quite catch, but that seemed to be along the lines of, "I thought I told you not to say anything!"

Amy and the Doctor looked to Dumbledore for guidance on what to say, and when he nodded the Time Lord beamed down at the boy. "You believe in magic, yes? Yes, obviously, as you _are _magic. Right, well, I suppose you could think of this as another type of magic, if it helps, otherwise it might be a bit confusing – It's a bit confusing anyway, actually, I'm a bit confused and I'm the one actually _in _the story -"

"Doctor," Amy said warningly, gesturing for him to get on with it.

"Right, yes, sorry. Well. _That _is my space ship – it travels through time, too, very important, remember that – and Amy and I were in it when it was pulled through a crack in our universe and crashed here in _your_ universe; in your school hall, specifically – love the ceiling, by the way," the Doctor explained, wiggling his fingers at the TARDIS and then up at the enchanted roof, which was now a nice light blue, although some grey clouds were still drifting overhead.

"A crack in the universe?" A girl from the table closest to Amy, which was filled with students wearing blue and silver ties, called out, clearly disbelieving.

"A _crack _in the _universe_!" The boy beside her repeated, looking as though Christmas had arrived early. "What's your universe like, is it much different to this one?"

"Uh, no, it's quite similar, but yes, there was a crack in the universe and something pulled us through here -"

"Something bad?" A small boy wearing a yellow tie, probably no older than twelve, interrupted the Time Lord with a shout.

"Uh, no, probably not… Maybe," the Doctor stuttered, rolling forward onto the balls of his feet and twiddling his thumbs. "It's a little bit not good, but not to worry -"

"Why should we believe what you're saying?" A pale, dark haired boy interrupted snidely.

The Doctor looked slightly taken aback by that, but before he had a chance to answer James was standing up at the table across the hall and calling, "Because it's the truth!"

"Yeah, there's another Evans standing up there, Snivellus! Thought _you _would have noticed that," the first boy to speak up shouted.

The Snivellus boy narrowed his eyes at Amy, who glared right back. "Have you never heard of Polyjuice potion, Black? I'd have thought that was at a level even you could understand -"

"And you think Dumbledore's just having a joke, do you?!" Black called out, rising from his seat in anger.

Instantly there were groups of students standing up at the red table and the green table and shouting obscenities at each other. The boy from the blue table who'd excitedly asked all those questions and his friends were yelling at the rude boy, too. Soon enough the whole hall was going to be in chaos. Amy watched in alarm as a few students drew their wands, and was just about to shout out herself when the Time Lord beat her to it.

"No one's joking here!" The Doctor declared, his voice full of authority with just the slightest tint of anger. Immediately the whole hall fell silent. "This is a serious matter, and with a war looming I'd expect all of you to be a bit more appreciative of the possible danger you're in."

"Very reassuring, Doctor," Amy muttered as the colour drained from the now silent and still student's faces.

The Doctor skipped down the steps and walked over to where Lily sat, gripping her shoulders and causing a light pink blush to spread over her cheeks. "Amy and I are not meant to be here, as having two Ponds in the one universe is too much." Amy rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest unappreciatively. "We need to find a way to get the TARDIS working again, but until we do, we all need to stay calm and _work together_, because it is _possible_, slightly, potentially, _possible,_ that whatever brought us here has to do with Vold- sorry, You-Know-Who, and if that is the case then it is imperative that you _trust me_."

At the mention of Voldemort, the students seemed to realise the seriousness of what was happening. Most of them turned to glance at Dumbledore, who sombrely said, "The Doctor has my utmost trust. Whatever forces brought him here may indeed have a connection to the dark arts, so if there is anything we can do to help him, it will be done."

"Shouldn't we be worried, then?" A diminutive girl wearing a yellow scarf questioned, biting her fingernails.

At her words a fresh wave of panic broke out, with students asking if others could come through the crack too, or if they could be pulled through the other way, and why did the crack bring them to Hogwarts and _what did this mean for the Quidditch match on Saturday_?

Dumbledore raised a hand, and, obediently, the students quietened down again. "Do not worry. The matter is in very capable hands and will be rectified. Until then, life at Hogwarts will continue on as normal – Yes, Mr Potter, that includes Quidditch matches. We have taken steps to increase the security of the school, but none of you need to panic."

A girl at the blue table turned to her friend and whispered, just loud enough for Amy to overhear, "But how can we not panic if we don't know what the crack in the universe means? What if our whole world disappears!

"Your world is not going to disappear, so keep calm," the Doctor said brightly, smiling down at the girl, who looked embarrassed to realise he'd overheard her. "I'm an expert on universes, and cracks in them, and this will all be sorted in no time. Trust me; I'm the Doctor."

There was a beat of silence, and then the boy called Black asked, "So what do we do now, just go to class like everything's normal?"

"After an extended breakfast, class will resume as normal," Dumbledore informed him.

"I do wonder, Professor, if I could borrow James and Lily for a while. I've got some tests I'd like to run…" The Doctor asked.

Dumbledore nodded, and Lily and James shared a nervous smile.

"So, now that's all sorted," Amy stated, striding forward and looking expectantly out at the empty table tops, "You said something about breakfast, yeah?"

"_Merlin_!" A short boy beside Black breathed, looking impressed, "It's a Scottish Lily!"

James laughed, "As if her temper couldn't get any worse."

"Hey!" Lily and Amy said in unison, putting their hands on their hips.

"I'd watch it, Prongs," another of the boys sitting with them said, the corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk. "Who knows what two of them could do to you."

"Well -" James began, one eyebrow quirked up suggestively.

"Oh!" Lily gave an offended gasp and slapped him lightly on the cheek. A ripple of laughter broke out across the hall, with a few people cat calling.

"Ow! That was a bit harsh!" James said sulkily, rubbing his reddened cheek.

"That was totally fair," Amy said. "And now, I am _starved_!"

Dumbledore clapped his hands together and suddenly plates of food appeared on all the tables; pancakes and cereal, sausages and eggs and toast, jugs of milk and orange juice all wafting beautiful scents across the hall. Amy licked her lips and jogged over to where the Doctor still stood behind Lily, pushing him aside and sliding onto the bench next to her duplicate.

She started shovelling some scrambled eggs onto her plate, but before she could even have a mouthful the boy they called Black was leaning across the table and giving her a flirtatious smile.

"So your name's Amy, yeah? I'm Sirius Black," he greeted, holding out a hand.

"Hi," she said, shaking it.

"If you want a tour of the campus, I'm a bit of an expert -"

"Really, Sirius?" Lily sighed, "You're going to hit on my alternate self?"

"Yeah, that's sending some pretty messed up signals, Padfoot," James said, punching his arm.

"Did you wish _really _hard, James?" A boy with light brown hair teased, and then smiled across at Amy. "I'm Remus Lupin."

"Peter Pettigrew," the shorter, blonde boy beside Sirius greeted.

"Amy Pond," Amy said, taking a bite of eggs and toast, and then waving her fork over her shoulder, "And the Doctor."

"James and Lily told us that you're an alien," Peter said to the Doctor, "But you look human…"

"Nifty, isn't it?" The Doctor said, squashing himself down onto the seat between Lily and James; Lily seemed pretty pleased about this, while James looked a bit annoyed. "I look human, but I'm an alien. Two hearts, ability to regenerate – this is my eleventh body."

"You've had eleven bodies?! How old are you?" Sirius asked, incredulously.

"Nine hundred and something," the Doctor said, counting on his fingers. "I think. Hard to keep track, you know, with all of that time travel -"

Amy and the Doctor nearly jumped out of their seats when a soft, familiar voice said from behind them, "Maybe you should consider keeping a diary, Sweetie."

* * *

**a.n. **Cliff-hanger with the arrival of River, because I'm cruel. Absolutely all of the introduction/setting up/reaction stuff is done now.  
Next chapter will have some one-on-one conversations between River/Eleven, Eleven/James and Amy/Lily. Exciting stuff.  
But I have six assignments to do, so unfortunately I'm not sure when the next update will be. I'll try my best to not leave it too long!  
Thanks for reading, I hope you're enjoying the story - please tell me what you think in a review!  
Oh, and as a side note - I know in the DW universe HP exists as a book series, but for the sake of this story we're all just pretending that it doesn't. Kthanks. :)


	7. Fast Forward

_Seven – Fast Forward_

River Song was one of the most incredible people the Doctor had ever met, and that was certainly saying something, because he had met _a lot _of people over the years. She still wouldn't tell him who she was – _Spoilers_, she'd say. Urgh, how he hated that word! – but she had told him once that he would come to trust her completely, and each time they met he became more convinced of the truth behind her words. She'd been at Hogwarts not five minutes and he already felt reassured that they'd have the TARDIS working again and be back in their own universe by that afternoon; But he was not going to tell her that, because she would be insufferably smug if he did, and also because she'd been incredibly reckless in coming here, and he was feeling disapproving. He didn't even want to think about what could have happened to her had she got stuck in the void, and the more he thought about the risk she'd taken the more upset with her he got. So he stood before her now, his throat constricted with warring emotions and his old eyes surveying her closely, trying to decide how to proceed.

"But I don't understand," Amy breathed, gaping up at the woman standing in front of her. "How did you know we were here?"

"Spoilers," River said, shaking her head and making her blonde, corkscrew curls bounce.

"Never mind that," the Doctor said quickly, staring at the Vortex manipulator River had cuffed to her arm. "Did you use that to get here?"

"Don't get all snobby now," she tutted at him. "It did the job."

"It's rubbish!" He yelled, throwing an arm out as though the device personally offended him.

"You'll find it very useful one day, you know," River said, smiling knowingly – _infuriatingly_ – at him.

"What does that -" He began to ask her a question, but stopped as soon as she opened her mouth. "_Spoilers_, I know! Don't say it. I hate that word. Ruins all my fun."

The Doctor plonked himself heavily back down onto the bench seat and pouted at her, arms folded across his chest and his legs crossed.

"Is this a friend of yours, Doctor?" Dumbledore glided over to them and appraised River; his tone was as light and friendly as ever, but his eyes were wary.

"I don't know what she is," the Time Lord said. "She won't tell me. Oh don't give me that look, you know what I mean!"

River, who had been looking at the Doctor imploringly, turned her gaze to the Headmaster. "Sorry, he gets like this some times. I'm River Song, a friend of the Doctor and Amy." She held out a hand, which Dumbledore shook.

"Lovely to meet you, River. I take it you have some knowledge of what's going on here?" Dumbledore asked.

"Do you know how to get us home?" Amy asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately, we can't use my Vortex manipulator," River said, gesturing at the brown cuff she had on.

When he saw Amy's expression change from hopeful to questioning, the Doctor sighed heavily and then said in a bored voice, still refusing to look at River, "It's a rubbish mode of transport, quite primitive and, now that it's inside Hogwarts, utterly useless, as the magic here will have cut out its signal. It's not as powerful as the TARDIS; rather than storing the magic like she is that _thing _has just blown its circuits."

Everyone was staring at him. Amy put her bottom lip out in a pout and said teasingly, "Aw, you're being Mr Grumpy Face again."

"Sorry, _who _are you?" Sirius asked River, voicing the thoughts of all the other students.

The Doctor was oblivious to all of them, though; he was so wrapped up in River. As his anger won out, he exclaimed suddenly, "You could have killed yourself!" He stood up and pointed a finger threateningly at her. "What were you thinking, using that to cross the void?! Do you know how dangerous that was?"

Somewhere in the otherwise silent hall someone dropped a fork, and it clattered noisily against the stone floor.

River didn't even bat an eyelid, saying in an ever-so-slightly flirtatious voice, "Did you really think I'd let you come somewhere this fun without me, Doctor?"

"Did I- Wha – You are _impossible_!" The Doctor spluttered, looking absolutely furious. "You are reckless and irresponsible and- and -"

"And you feel better now that I'm here, don't you?"

There was a tense moment, where the two of them just stared at each other, River's face impassive and the Doctor's a mask of rage. And then she quirked up the corners of her lips in a smile and suddenly all of the tension left his posture as visible relief flooded through him.

He bopped her lightly on the noise and said, "River Song, I am _happy_ to see you."

"There, was so that so hard to say?" River's face broke out into a full grin, and the Time Lord beamed back at her, both of them looking incredibly pleased with themselves.

"You really shouldn't have done that though, it was very dangerous," the Doctor said, but he couldn't bring himself to sound quite as stern as he wanted to.

River smirked, "You know I love a bit of danger."

"Of course you do, you bad girl," the Doctor said flirtatiously.

Lily leant over to Amy, their red hair falling into one sheet, so it was impossible to tell where one of them ended and the other began, and asked quietly, "Are they married?"

"They totally are," Amy replied at a normal volume, continuing on sarcastically, "And if they're done with the _flirting_, there is the whole 'cracks in the universe' thing to deal with. You know, just some trivial stuff."

"Right, stop distracting me," the Doctor said, his tone suddenly serious, even though his eyes were still shining. He began to pace up and down the length of the table, talking to himself despite the audience of a thousand students and a dozen staff hanging on his every word. "You knew we were here but you didn't tell us how you knew, which means that one of us contacts you in the future; You'll have to tell us when the time's right so we don't create a paradox. Have you sent the Home Box yet?"

"Two weeks ago," River replied.

"It arrived in wizarding London just yesterday," Dumbledore told them.

Amy accused the Doctor indignantly, "You got a message from River and you didn't tell me?"

"I was going to tell you, but then she went and actually turned up and I didn't have to," the Time Lord said, waving away his companion's complaint. "That's odd, the time difference. Very strange. But that's alright, I'll figure out what it means later... Speaking of time differences!" He spun around to face River, blue eyes wide. "Where are you up to?"

River pulled her diary, decorated to look like the TARDIS, from her pocket and began flipping through it. "Asgard?" The Doctor shook his head. "Jim the Fish?" Another no. "So the Weeping Angels were the last time you saw me, at the Byzantium?"

"Yes," the Doctor and Amy said in unison.

"What is going on?" James asked, looking hopelessly lost.

"We're both time travellers," River explained, "I'm from his future; we keep meeting in the wrong order."

"You said it was complicated, but I didn't think it could be quite _this _bad," James said to Amy, rubbing his forehead as though trying to comprehend what was happening was giving him a headache.

"You have _no _idea," the Doctor muttered, grabbing his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and scanning River's Vortex manipulator. He held it up to check the readings, and frowned at what he saw.

"Can I have a look at the TARDIS?" River asked sweetly.

He lowered his sonic and aimed his frown at her. "Why?"

She shrugged her shoulders in a show of false modesty. "Because I might be able to help -"

"She's _my _TARDIS," the Doctor said petulantly. "What makes you think you'll be able to fix her if I can't?"

"Well, River doesn't leave the brakes on when she lands," Amy said.

"Thank you, Amy," the Time Lord said sarcastically. "I take you travelling through all of time and space and how do you thank me? By insulting my driving!"

"No one's insulting you, Doctor," River said, her voice placating, "But don't you think if we work together to fix her we can get home quicker?"

He didn't respond, just swept away across the hall to the TARDIS, stalking inside and shutting the door behind him. A few moments passed before he flung it open again and called out, "Are you lot coming, or not?"

There was a scramble at the Gryffindor table, and the next thing the Doctor knew he had not only River and Amy in the console room with him, but Lily and James and the three boys who had been sitting with them, as well.

"Don't you have to go to class?" He asked, eyeing the new comers.

"What's class compared to a space ship?" Sirius said, looking around in awe.

"A _real _space ship," Remus breathed, walking in a circle around the centre console.

"It's bigger on the inside!" Peter gasped, and the Doctor laughed.

"Right then, I suppose you can stay. As long as Dumbledore says it's okay," the Doctor said, adding the last bit as an afterthought – He didn't want to push his host's hospitality.

"Oh yeah, of course, he's fine with it," Sirius said, waving a hand dismissively, even though he was obviously lying.

The Doctor couldn't be bothered fighting with headstrong teenagers though, so he let it go and instead pulled the screen down to show River what was happening. Her hip bumped his as she sidled up close, leaning forward to get a good look at the screen.

"So she's got power, but she doesn't know how to convert it into a useable form," River said thoughtfully.

"Exactly," the Doctor said. "And it's really thrown her, crossing the void. She burnt up the second library, and the cricket pitch…"

"You had a cricket pitch in here?" Lily asked. "How big is this place?"

"I told you, it's a whole other dimension," the Doctor informed her, proudly patting the console. He grinned as a thought occurred to him, and said politely, "Amy, why don't you take our guests on a tour?"

"A tour of the TARDIS?" Amy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Doctor, do _you _even know your way around?"

"Of course I do!" He bristled. "And you do, too. Don't worry, she won't let you get lost. Go on."

With a sigh, Amy rounded up the Hogwarts students and led them away down the closest corridor, in the direction of the library with the swimming pool still in it.

As soon as they were out of ear shot, the Doctor turned to River and clapped his hands onto her shoulders.

"Oh, Doctor," she purred provocatively. "If you wanted some privacy you could have just asked…"

His cheeks went pink as she stared up at him through thick lashes, and he cleared his throat awkwardly and gave her a bashful smile as he removed his hands.

"River," he said, and then had to clear his throat again to get his voice back to its normal pitch, which made her laugh. As his gaze turned serious, however, so did hers. "River… I need you to tell me what you meant about the Daleks."

[[…]]

Amy loved the TARDIS. She loved its impossibility, and the sheer genius of it. She loved its hospitality, and the way it had always felt like a proper home to her, however unconventional it may have been, ever since it had first crashed into her garden shed all those years ago. Yes, Amy loved the TARDIS as if it were her own; and, accordingly, Amy loved showing it off. It wasn't every day she got to give people a guided tour, after all!

"What's through there?" James asked, pointing to a bright red door.

"Uh… No idea actually. Probably best not to check."

Even if she didn't quite know where everything was, or _what _everything was, for that matter.

"I can't believe this," Lily was saying, and the fact that her emerald green eyes were almost as wide as dinner plates made Amy certain she was telling the truth.

Not that there was anything wrong with that; Amy _lived _here, and she still couldn't quite believe it was real.

"What about Hogwarts, though?" She asked, "It seems like a pretty amazing place, yeah?"

"Oh, Hogwarts is brilliant," Lily replied, and, as always, Amy was just a little bit shocked to her an English accent come from her mouth. "Yeah, Hogwarts is incredible. It's just… This is a whole new kind of magic, you know? I mean, I'm talking to my alternate self! How _cool _is that?"

Amy laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty amazing."

"What's up here?" Sirius called out from a few hundred metres ahead of them.

"No, wait, don't go down there!" Amy called out, sprinting forward to try and catch up to the four boys as they rounded the corner. "Stop! That's the -" As she turned, a set of silver doors shut in front of her face. "-lift," she finished dejectedly.

"Oh, no," Lily sighed. "They always do this." She hit the closed doors with her open palm and yelled out crossly, "James Potter, open these doors!" The only response she got was the clanking of gears as the lift took off. "Of course they wouldn't just step back out; they'd have to press a button and go explore."

Amy leant her forehead against the wall before turning around and saying to the TARDIS ceiling, "Can you bring them back, please?"

Silence. Absolute silence. Oh, if they broke anything the Doctor was going to _kill her_.

"Bloody Marauders," Lily huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Amy blinked at her. "Bloody _what_?"

"Marauders," Lily repeated. "It's what they call themselves. Have for years. And it just sort of… stuck, and now everyone knows them as the Marauders, because they're constantly getting in trouble."

Amy let out a bubbling laugh as an image of Mels flashed into her mind. "Oh, I know the sort."

"And James has changed this year, he really has," Lily continued, leaning up against the wall beside Amy and unconsciously mimicking her pose, with her legs crossed at the ankles and her shoulders slumped forward. "And I do genuinely like him, a lot. But I don't know, sometimes I wonder if – if I'm doing the right thing, going out with him. I mean, it took three years of him asking me to go on a date with him before I finally said yes, and, as much fun as he is, sometimes I can't help but think that I said no all those times for a _reason_, you know?"

As Lily spoke, Amy felt something painful constrict in her chest, blocking her throat and making it hard to breathe. There was that niggling feeling again, something nagging at the edge of her consciousness, saying that she was forgetting something, something _big, _and _why couldn't she remember_….

"I'm so sorry," Lily gasped, and Amy was taken aback.

"What for?" She asked.

As soon as her eyes locked onto the other girl's, the oppressive feeling was gone, the pressure lifted from her heart and the fog cleared from her mind. She shook her head lightly, blinking and trying to remember what Lily had been saying that had made her feel so strange.

"For just… blurting all of that out," Lily clarified. She did look genuinely mortified, Amy thought. "I'm sorry, you don't even know what I'm talking about, you're a stranger, and I just went and told you all of my problems that I haven't told anyone, not even Marlene -"

"It's fine," Amy told her, patting her arm reassuringly. "Honestly. And I'm not a stranger, am I; I'm _you_."

Lily laughed at that, and gave Amy a fond smile. "I suppose you are, yeah."

"So, what's going on with James? He's a bit of a hottie, I must admit."

"Yeah, he is a bit of a looker," Lily stood up straighter and pushed some errant red strands of hair back off her forehead, a small, fond smile playing on her pink lips. "He's been chasing me since we were thirteen, and at the start of this year I finally agreed to go on a date with him."

"And you're seventeen now?" Amy mentally calculated, and then let out a low whistle as she realised James hadn't been exaggerating at all when he'd told her he knew all about waiting.

Lily nodded, and then groaned, her smile vanished. "It's just – he really loves me. He says it all the time, and even though most of the time he tries to say it like it's a joke, or just an offhand comment, I know it's not. I see the way he looks at me, I've seen the way he's looked at me for all these years, and I- I don't think I look at him like that. I don't think I love him like he loves me."

"Well, that's normal, isn't it? For one person in a relationship to be more keen than the other," Amy paused for a moment, chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully and trying to ignore the tug on her heartstrings. "I'm sure it happens all the time."

Lily looked at her hopelessly. "But I don't want to lead him on, Amy. And I don't think I'm ready for the type of commitment he's asking me for."

"It's not like you're getting married," Amy chuckled, but when Lily's face paled she gasped, "Are you?!"

"No, no," Lily hurriedly assured her. "Well… Not yet, anyway. I'm worried he might ask soon."

"You're _seventeen_," Amy enunciated slowly. "What are you even doing thinking about marriage?"

Lily shrugged one shoulder tiredly. "There's a war coming, and we all have to grow up eventually. I think James is just more keen to get started with a domestic life than I am… I think he's a bit worried about how much longer we'll have the opportunity."

"Who says we have to grow up?" Amy asked stubbornly. She had resolved to get this thing sorted out, as she couldn't bare to see her alternate self so conflicted; and so she gave Lily the advice that she herself wanted to hear. "And who says marriage is the way to go about it?"

"It's not that bad, really. James is a great guy, practically every girl in school would kill to be in my position," Lily informed her. "And I do really like him... I don't want to hurt him, but I can't change my feelings."

"But you do want to keep dating him?" Amy questioned, "Just not marry him?"

"Yeah," Lily said, sounding a bit more enthusiastic now that it seemed Amy was understanding. "Yeah, exactly. I mean, I'd like to see how things turned out, because I do have feelings for him. I'm just not as sure about them as he is."

"Well then just give it time!" Amy exclaimed brightly. "Hopefully he won't ask you for any big commitments until you're as ready as he is, and everything will be fine."

Lily seemed to hesitate over something for a moment, before asking slowly, "How old are you, Amy?"

"Twenty-one," she told her.

"And are you married?"

Amy laughed, but it was a hollow sound that reverberated off the TARDIS walls and held no cheer at all. "No, I'm not really the marrying type."

Lily suddenly stepped away from the wall in alarm, looking back at Amy with a regretful expression. "Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you -"

"I'm not upset," Amy stated, gazing at the other girl quizzically.

Lily stepped forward again, and lightly brushed her finger tips against her cheek. "Then why are you crying?"

Amy reached up to her face, and once again felt warm, wet tears sitting on her eyelashes. She pulled her hand away and looked to Lily, who seemed just as confused as she was, "…I don't know."

Suddenly she remembered Vincent; the two of them walking to the church and him admiring her strength to _carry on_; the thought of their children with red hair, brighter than sunflowers. That must be why she was crying, she decided. She was just mourning a lost friend, nothing more. A completely normal emotion. Never mind that it had started while she'd been with Vincent.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Lily sounded very worried.

"I'm fine," Amy assured her, wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her jacket. "Totally fine. Now, what do you say we go track down those Marauders of yours?"

"Merlin knows what havoc they're wreaking on their own in here."

Lily rolled her eyes, and both girls laughed as Amy pressed the button to open the doors of the lift. When they stepped inside, she turned to Lily to ask her what floor she thought they should look on first, but before she could articulate her question the other girl had flung herself forwards and wrapped her arms around her neck in a tight embrace.

"Thank you," Lily said into Amy's shoulder.

After a few awkward seconds, Amy hugged her back. "You're welcome."

They parted with identical smiles, and Lily exclaimed, "Right, let's go stop those boys from tearing another hole in the fabric of the universe!"

[[…]]

The Doctor was fiddling with some wires beneath the console when he saw feet on the glass floor above him; a pair of narrow, black school shoes, attached to a lean body, and a gangly arm reaching out to touch something…

"Don't touch anything!" The Doctor yelled, springing up and brandishing a floppy blue wire at the boy like a weapon.

Although of course the Doctor never carried a weapon, and if he did happen to have one he certainly wouldn't aim it a person, because violence was never the answer. And who needed a weapon when you had a sonic screwdriver? Speaking of which, where _had_ his screwdriver gotten to…?

"Arghh, sorry!" James apologised loudly, flailing a bit before whirling around and clapping a hand to his heart. "You scared the cr- _living_ daylights out of me!"

"Sorry," the Doctor said insincerely, "But you really mustn't touch anything. You don't know how to drive her."

"Do _you _know how to drive her?" James asked, his tone suggesting that he wasn't entirely joking.

The Time Lord scoffed, "Do I know how to drive the TARDIS? _Of course_ I know how to drive the TARDIS, she's _my_ ship and no one can drive her better than me."

"What about that woman who turned up this morning; River? She seems to know how to drive it."

The Doctor appraised James with narrowed eyes, wondering if the boy was deliberately trying to antagonise him or just being ignorant.

"She likes to think she knows how to, yes. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to re-rout the -" the Doctor stopped suddenly as he realised that James was on his own. He craned his neck to look behind the boy, and saw nothing but the empty console room and an empty hallway stretching away beyond that. "Where is everyone?"

"Oh, uh…" James rubbed the back of his neck, looking sufficiently awkward. "We got… separated."

"You got separated?" The Doctor repeated as he slowly, deliberately, made his way up the stairs to stand in front of James.

"Yeah, we boys took a wrong turn, and, uh, when we realised we'd lost the girls we decided to split up and go looking for them…" James stumbled over his poorly rehearsed explanation, ruffling his hair as he spoke.

The Doctor sighed and turned to the console, typing something in on the keyboard and pressing a bright white button. "That's okay, I'll just activate the guiding lights and tell them to follow them back here -"

"Uh, Doctor," James said hesitantly, stepping up to the other man and moving to tap him on the shoulder. When he turned around, though, James dropped his arm quickly back to his side. "Before they get back, I was wondering if I could ask you something?"

The Doctor looked James up and down before focusing on his hazel eyes, and he found that, behind the round spectacles sitting on his nose, they were completely serious and actually pretty clever.

"Sure," he said simply, flashing a small smile.

"When I met first met Amy," James began, and then stopped to take a deep breath and consider his words, as though he hadn't thought of what to say past that opening line, "When she saw me for the first time, she started crying. And when I asked her why she was crying, she acted like she hadn't even realised." James paused expectantly, but when the Doctor remained silent he added, "Why? Why was she crying, and why didn't she realise?"

The Doctor sighed heavily, his lips pressed into a thin line, and shook his head once. "It's a long story."

"Please tell me," James near-begged.

"It's complicated," the Doctor said with finality.

"_Please_," James persisted. "Please, Doctor, I – I need to know. If she's Lily from another universe, then who's to say that their experiences aren't going to be similar? The way she was crying, it was… it was... I don't know what it was, but I don't ever want to have see tears like that on Lily's face, ever again."

The Doctor closed his eyes, and when he opened them again he saw James still standing there expectantly, desperately waiting to hear an explanation.

"You know how Lily is an alternate Amy?" The Time Lord began, continuing on when the boy nodded, "Well, you have an alternate in our universe, too. Had. You _had _an alternate in our world."

"What- What happened to him?" James asked, worry lines creasing his young forehead.

"He was swallowed by one of the cracks in the universe... Completely erased from history – he didn't just die, he was never born," the Doctor said, and he didn't bother trying to keep the sadness or the exhaustion out of his voice. If James was going to learn about Rory, he might as well learn about all of the feelings that went along with it. "Amy's forgotten him, because technically, now, he never existed."

The Doctor had expected a moment of silence, a brief pause for James to contemplate what was being said – but instead the boy looked him straight in the eyes and said fiercely, "But she was crying when she saw me, so she remembers, right? Some part of her remembers?"

"Amy Pond is an extraordinary girl," the Doctor said cryptically. "She shouldn't remember Rory at all, but some part of her does. Her dreams, her memories, they're stronger than most peoples'. When something triggers it, they leak through into her consciousness and she _feels _them, even if she can't quite grasp them."

"Can he ever come back?" James asked quietly. "Rory?"

There was a split second of internal debate, as the Doctor looked at James's painfully familiar face, and then he told him honestly, "I wish he could, but I don't think so… No, I don't think he can."

James's face crumpled, and the Doctor turned away, leaning on the console and looking so, so old. Because it was _his_ fault that Rory was gone, _his_ fault that Amy had lost the man she was supposed to marry… His fault that he always got everyone into trouble. A lump formed in his throat, and he closed his eyes against the memory of watching Rory disappear, of watching all of them disappear…

"What was he like?" James queried, his voice sounding slightly strained.

But, even if it ended badly, there was a reason that so many people wanted to travel with the Doctor. Because sometimes he couldn't see the wonder in the universe, and more often he couldn't see the wonder in himself – but _they_ could. His companions, so young and so enthusiastic and with their whole futures stretching out in front of them; they saw the inherent goodness in the strange, old alien, and when they looked at him as though he could save their world, sometimes, just _sometimes_, he saw it too.

James was looking at him like that now, as though what the Doctor said next could make or break his opinion of the Time Lord.

"He was fantastic, Rory was," the Doctor told him, turning around with a genuine smile. "Funny, cleverer than he looked. And she really loved him, even if it took her a while to realise it. She still does. She just doesn't remember."

James appeared to be deep in thought; the Doctor could practically see the cogs turning in his head. "Do you think I -"

"I've got the tools you asked for, Doctor, and the jammie dodgers. You've moved the kitchen since last time, though, took me a while to find the right cupboard…" River's voice drifted into the room ahead of her, and when she came into view the Doctor was pleased to see that she was in fact carrying a red toolbox and a packet of his favourite snacks.

"Smashing!" the Doctor cried, racing over to her and grabbing the biscuits.

"Oh, sorry," she said when she saw James. "Did I interrupt something?"

"No, no, not at all," the Doctor told her cheerily, ripping open the packet and taking a large bite out of a biscuit. "James is just the only one of our new friends who's managed to find their way back to the console room. Turns out Amy's a bit of a rubbish tour guide. Jammie dodger, anyone?"

River declined with a laugh, but James gratefully took one from the packet the Time Lord extended to him. "Thanks," he said around his mouthful, spitting a few crumbs onto the front of his robes.

"Welcome," the Doctor said back automatically, and then shoved the whole packet into James's arms and spun back to the centre console. "Now, if I just turn on these lights -" he flicked a yellow switch next to the white button he'd pressed earlier, "- and then turn _off _those ones -" he flicked another switch, and suddenly the whole room was plunged into darkness, "No, sorry! Not those ones, definitely not those ones!"

"These ones, perhaps?" River's disembodied voice floated to his ears, and just as he reached the switch he was looking for he felt her hand slide on top of it, her fingers brushing the side of his palm. He felt the shift in pressure as she flicked it up, and saw the smug grin on her face as the lights came back on.

"I had it under control."

"Of course you did, my love," River sighed.

He stuck his tongue out at her and grabbed the radio from its holder atop the console, speaking into it, "Hello there, lost little children! I've turned the guiding lights on for you, so if you could all please just walk down the lit up corridors and avoid the dark ones, you'll end up back in the console room in no time! Yell out if you're stuck and we…might… hear you. Hopefully. See you soon!"

He put the mouthpiece back and snatched the jammie dodgers back off James, shoving a whole one in his mouth and grinning.

"How long do you think it'll take them to get back here?" James inquired.

"Depends how far away they are," the Time Lord replied helpfully.

Measuring time in biscuits, it took two for Remus to appear, four for Lily and Amy, seven for Sirius – who kept finding _so many cool things on the way! _– and the rest of the packet for Peter, who came scurrying in apologising and saying how they really needed some signs or something, and swearing that the corridors kept moving around.

"Well that's what you get for running off," Lily chastised the Marauders once they were all back together.

"We didn't run off," Sirius protested.

Amy sarcastically replied, "Oh, yeah, you didn't run off at all; you just went in the direction I told you not to, and then disappeared in the lift."

"To be fair, Remus accidentally pressed the button, we didn't go to the third floor on purpose," James explained.

"Right, well, either way, I'm out of jammie dodgers now," the Doctor declared, tossing the empty packet over his head. "You lot have eaten them all."

"We had _one each_," Amy complained.

"Yeah, well, there's a lot of you, aren't there?" the Doctor insisted, wiping his hands on her sleeve. "Far more than I'm used to, actually. Too many people in the TARDIS!" He felt a bit manic, all of a sudden, and began waving people towards the door. "Isn't this a school; shouldn't some of you be in class, learning…magicky…stuff?"

"Are you kicking us out?" Sirius asked waspishly.

"I wouldn't call it that," the Time Lord said, "I'm politely asking you to vacate the TARDIS."

The seventeen year olds all stared at him, looking more than a little put out. He sighed heavily, raising and lowering his shoulders in a dramatic show, and ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm sorry. I'm not kicking you out just because, I promise. I need to do some tests and some work, and I don't want you being in here if anything goes wrong."

"Doctor, what do you mean 'if anything goes wrong'?" Amy asked.

"I mean, I'm not sure how stable she is, and I don't know what all of this magical energy is doing to her circuitry. If anything… I don't know, blows up, I don't want you caught in it," the Doctor explained.

"You said you wanted to do some tests on James and I," Lily reminded him. "You haven't done them yet."

"Right you are, Lily!" The Doctor declared, stepping up to her and looping an arm over her shoulder.

She smiled, for the briefest of moments; until he grabbed a strand of her hair and pulled it from her scalp, and she let out a shriek. James, of course, came rushing helpfully over, and the Doctor yanked a strand of his hair out, too.

"Ow! What was that for?" James asked angrily, rubbing the back of his head and glaring at the Doctor.

"I needed some of your DNA to run the tests on," the Doctor told them, putting the two hairs on a glass slide in the console and typing on the type writer. "And now I've got them, so you can go about your normal business without a worry and I will come and get you when the results are in."

"You're unbelievable," James snapped, wrapping an arm around Lily's waist and holding her close to him.

Suddenly the TARDIS was rocked by a violent shake, and the familiar whooshing, wheezing noise of dematerialisation began to sound out.

"No, no, no, no!" The Doctor cried out, running around the console. "No, no, what are you _doing_?"

"Doctor!" Amy yelled out as another violent rock sent her flying to the floor.

James managed to catch her before she fell, and he tucked her under the arm not holding tight to Lily.

"What's happening?" Remus asked urgently, gripping onto the railing with Peter and Sirius.

"She's trying to take off," River explained. "Doctor, why is she suddenly trying to take off?"

"Where are you trying to go?!" The Time Lord asked his TARDIS hopelessly, holding onto the scanner with both hands. "We can't leave now, not with all of them in here!"

"Where are the stabilisers?" River asked, looking blankly at the area of the console the blue buttons used to occupy.

He could _not _believe she was bringing this up now.

"They're boringers, River, they are _blue boringers_, and they have no place on my TARDIS," the Doctor snapped, glaring at the area of the console River was pointing at.

"They were _stabilisers_," River growled, "They _stabilised _her. They were _helpful_."

"They were _boring_!"

"You're so childish!"

"You're so annoying!"

"You think you know everything!"

"_So do you!_"

Amy yelled out, "Yes, you're both very clever, can you stop now?! I think there are a few things higher on the agenda to worry about at the moment!"

The Doctor and River shared one last intense gaze before River relented a nod, and the Doctor rushed to her side, the two of them putting their expert skills to good use and trying to regain control of the TARDIS.

"We need to land her, we need to get her back down and get everyone out -"

There was another powerful _thud, _and then absolute silence. Everyone remained still for a minute, waiting to see if any more movement was going to happen. When nothing moved, the Doctor bounded to the door and River went straight for the scanner, pulling the screen down and peering at it closely.

"We haven't moved, apparently," the Doctor pushed open the door to reveal that they were, indeed, still in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. It was empty now, except for a slightly dazed looking man in a tattered coat, and a fluffy brown cat circling around his ankles, who hissed at him.

"Uh, Doctor," River said worriedly, "We have moved."

"We're right where we were, though," Sirius said, gazing out past the Doctor.

The Time Lord turned around slowly, ignoring the still hissing cat, and watched Amy's eyes go wide as she realised what River meant. Lily looked over at her, and slowly her expression mirrored Amy's.

"No," she breathed.

"Yes," the Doctor said. "River, when are we?"

"_When _are we?" Peter repeated, his voice squeaking.

River dropped her hands to her sides as the Doctor came to stand right in front of her. Her eyes slid to the screen and then back to meet his, and she let out a worried sigh.

"We've skipped two weeks."

Alright, so that wasn't exactly good, but it wasn't as bad as he'd been expecting; a little bit not good, but it definitely could have been worse. He looked at the scanner, and contemplated what could have given the TARDIS the sudden surge in power, enough to catapult them two weeks into the future…

"Two weeks?!" Everyone exclaimed, their worry raising their voices to a shriek.

"Not to worry, two weeks is no time at all," the Doctor said, ushering everyone over to the doors.

"Yeah, he left me for twelve years once," Amy declared.

"How many times do I have to apologise for that, Pond?" The Doctor said, and he was glad when he saw she caught the sincerely sad look he gave her, belying the annoyed tone of his voice.

"Why have we gone two weeks into the future?" Sirius asked as the Time Lord pushed him into Remus, who was just stumbling out the front doors.

"No idea," the Doctor replied honestly, grabbing River's hand and pushing her out in front of him. "But we're here now, and there's no telling if the TARDIS is stable or not, so _out we go_, back into the Great Hall!"

The eight of them ran out into the hall, the Doctor turning back to look worriedly at his beloved TARDIS, hoping that it wouldn't dematerialise without him inside; because it was always such a pain getting her back when she did that.

"We need to find Dumbledore," Lily said straight away.

James nodded. "We need to find out what we've missed, and what's going on now."

"Yes, right you are," the Doctor agreed, but his eyes were still focused on the blue police phone box.

A loud explosion sounded out from behind them, in the closed off entrance hall, and while the sound seemed to stun everyone else it made the Time Lord spring into action. He ran over to the man with the cat, quickly scanning him up and down, with both his eyes and his sonic screwdriver.

"That explosion, what was it?" The Doctor asked urgently.

Instead of answering his question, the man snarled, "What do you think you're doing, parking that box there?!"

"What was that explosion?" The Doctor repeated.

"Another bloody mess for me to clean up, that's what it was! Everyone making a mess everywhere," The Man yelled, and his cat gave a sufficiently angry hiss in agreement. He turned to growl at the students, " I'd thought with you Marauders gone the castle'd be kept a bit cleaner, but -"

"Oh, quit your whining, Filch!" Sirius snapped, "Just answer the question, or we'll put that explosion to shame with our next round of pyrotechnics. You know we're capable!"

"You can't talk to me like that," Filch said, pointing a dirty finger at an irate Sirius.

"Excuse me!" Amy snapped, glaring at the infuriating man. "You are dealing with something far more complicated than what your little brain can comprehend here, and if you don't stop being rude and start giving us the answers we need, I'm going to come over there and -"

"Amy," the Doctor said evenly. Even though she was sure he meant it as a warning, the fact that he was barely suppressing a smile almost ruined the effect. Amy heeded it anyway, stepping back with only minimal huffing. The Doctor stared Filch down and repeated, "Tell me what is going on out there."

"The war's started," Filch finally relented, and his cat meowed and scratched at his boot. "Death Eaters are at Hogwarts' doors."

* * *

**a.n. **Righto, there's a super dooper long, relatively actiony chapter for you. I hope you enjoyed, and are now looking forward to the fighting in the next chapter.  
Please let me know what you think of the story! How did I go with River? There'll be more flirting in the next chapter, between River/Eleven and Amy/James. Because that's fun. But how were these conversations? In character, interesting to read, understandable?  
Again, I'll try to not leave it too long between updates, but uni is absolutely crazy with the workload at the moment, so I can't make any promises. As always though, the more reviews I get the more inspired I am, so the faster I'll get the next chapter written. Thanks for reading, favouriting, alerting, reviewing; you're all marvellous!


	8. Anger at the Daleks

_Eight – Anger at the Daleks_

The magic of Hogwarts was something entirely new to the Doctor. He'd encountered plenty of types of warfare over the course of his long, long life, but never had he seen a destruction that was so deceptively beautiful. Jets of light, showers of sparks, beams refracting off an invisible barrier above the towering front gates; he could see so much potential here, and it broke his hearts that all of that power was being used to destroy, when it could have been used for such good. He'd never faced a threat quite like this one before, but he'd gotten through much worse, he was sure. He'd get through this, too, without letting anyone get harmed. It couldn't be too hard; yes, magic was a highly advanced, highly dangerous form of combat that had been steadily practiced and refined over centuries, but he was the Doctor. And if the hooded people attempting to storm Hogwarts didn't know that now, they would soon enough.

"Really regretting not having a chance to learn some magic now," Amy muttered from where she stood beside him, drawing him out of his reverie.

"No need to fret, Pond," he said brightly, clapping a hand on her shoulder and giving her a convincing smile. "We've got some of the best witches and wizards of the time here with us – Plus there's me and River. They don't stand a chance."

Amy smiled back at him, all signs of worry erased from her expression and replaced by utmost faith. She believed in him, she trusted him to keep her safe, and that's what he would do.

"D-Doctor?" Peter stammered, tearing his watery eyes away from the scene outside to face the Doctor. He was a small boy, somewhat outmatched by his friends, with a mop of mousy hair and fingernails that had been bitten to stubs. Everything about him screamed of fear and doubt, a sharp desire to be protected. The Doctor regarded him closely. Cowardice was sometimes more dangerous than violence. "Have you e-ever fought a D-Death Eater before?"

"Have you ever fought a Time Lord before?" He countered, pushing through the group of students huddled by the window to join River on the other side of the Entrance Hall.

"They don't even seemed fussed," James said as the Doctor walked away, presumably to Amy.

He heard Amy laugh as she told him, "They do this all the time."

_Too often_, the Doctor thought heavily. River seemed to sense his darkening mood, for she looked up at him with understanding in her eyes and the faintest trace of a smile on her lips. He smiled back and stood up a bit straighter, snapping his braces.

"Got anything?" He asked, gesturing to the portable scanner she was holding.

"Nothing," she shook her head. "All the magic here, it's making it go -"

"Stupid!"

River nodded in agreement with the new voice, "Yes, stupid. Wait, what?"

_What _indeed. That was an angry voice, and angry voices would not do, not with the Doctor around and trying to think of a way to stop Hogwarts from being blasted with shiny explodey-wodey beams of light. He spun around to see a new arrival in the corridor; a boy, another student, with black hair falling in front of his dark eyes and pale skin, pointing a finger accusingly at Lily, who looked like she might cry.

"What were you thinking, going with these strangers?" The boy yelled. "You've been gone for two weeks, _two weeks, _we had no idea where you were or what had happened, you'd just vanished! That was the stupidest thing you could have done -"

"Leave her alone!" James roared, charging at the boy.

Rather than catching the boy in a full tackle, though, he ended up just catching his arm, so he was swung around to fully face the Doctor. His face was strained, and he was struggling to get his arm free, reaching for his wand – But the Doctor knew this boy.

"You're the boy from breakfast," the Time Lord said, stepping forward. "The one who doesn't trust us."

"Of course I don't trust you," the boy snarled, still struggling against James's hold.

"Let him go, James," the Doctor said in a calm attempt to diffuse the situation.

James, however, didn't appear to hear him. Alright then, so there was a lot of past animosity between those two. So much tension you could cut it with a spoon; and a lot of hurt, judging from the tears springing to Lily's eyes. Oohh, a love triangle, he hadn't dealt with one of those in a while. Messy things, far too complicated for his liking.

"No, you only put your trust in people who really deserve it, like all those Death Eaters out there," Sirius said sarcastically, "Isn't that right, Snivellus?"

"You stay out of this, Black!" The Snivellus boy yelled, only to be promptly thrown to the ground by James, who was now absolutely livid.

"James!" Lily yelled, panicked. "James, don't!"

James looked up at her and was completely still for a moment, and then he took a deep breath, reigned himself in, and stepped back. Good chap.

"He deserved it," Sirius muttered, but no one paid him any attention.

Lily asked, "Severus, are you okay?"

One of her feet stepped forward, just slightly, seemingly of its own accord; as though a part of her wanted to go to the boy but all her other parts were deliberately stopping her from doing so. James had his eyes locked on her face, but as soon as she glanced across at him she immediately looked away again.

The boy, meanwhile, continued to lie on the ground, holding an arm over his face and not making any noise. Not good signs, although it was bound to be more a matter of pride than physical injury that was hurting him. James had a pretty good tackle, but not that good.

The Doctor knelt down beside the boy and gingerly laid a hand on his forearm.

"Are you alri -"

His hand was flung backwards as the boy heaved himself to his feet, his dark eyes narrowed in disgust. "I'm fine," he said harshly.

"Why don't you run along and go catch up with your Death Eater mates then? I'm sure the rest of Slytherin house is having a right old party at the moment," Sirius snapped, clearly fed up with the boy's presence.

Severus glared at him, shooting him a look of pure hatred. The Doctor noticed that he'd finally managed to reach his wand, although he hadn't yet drawn it from his pocket. The entire party was on edge now, waiting for one of the boys to back down. Severus's hand twitched. Oh, the Doctor was going to have to step in.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the Time Lord said evenly, his own hands resting in the pockets of his trousers.

Everyone looked at him, confusion written all over their features. "Do what?" James asked.

"No fighting," the Doctor clarified. "Not while I'm here."

"Have you not looked outside?" Severus asked, his tone one of disbelief and disgust. "We're in a war, and you're telling us not to fight?"

What was it with humans and unnecessarily violent defences? Was war always their first response?

The Doctor took a few steps forward so that he was standing over the boy, and said, "Look at my eyes. These are old eyes. They have seen war, and they have stopped war, and I am telling you, when the time comes, you will be wishing that you'd listened to me."

In one fluid movement, Severus drew his wand from his pocket – but as soon as he'd moved, so had Sirius, James, Remus and Lily, every single one of them also reaching for their wands. They were quick, some of them incredibly so – but the Doctor was faster. Before they could even blink he had his trusty sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and in his hand, and with one click he had all of them disarmed, their wands lying useless on the floor.

"What was that?" Remus asked, staring at his open, empty hand as though it had suddenly turned to string cheese.

"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor said proudly. No one but Amy looked impressed – they all seemed a bit stunned stupid, really - so he added, "You're lucky it was my sonic and not River's blaster."

"I don't think you need those magic lessons," James commented in a shocked voice.

Severus seemed to recover himself first, stooping down to collect his wand, and then stormed off across the hall out of sight. The Doctor had a feeling he'd make another appearance soon enough.

"What's his problem?" Amy asked no one in particular.

"Me," Lily and James said at the same time.

The young couple looked at each other, clearly surprised, and then Lily continued, "We have a bit of… history."

"Oh, teenage romance," River sighed dramatically, drawing the tension out of the air and getting everyone's attention. The Doctor noticed that her blaster was sitting in a slightly different position in her belt than before, as though she'd pulled it out and then hurriedly returned it to its holster. He couldn't help but smile. "It can make you forget about everything else in the world, even when there's a war on your doorstep."

"_Literally_ on your doorstep," the Doctor said, bounding back to her and peering out the cathedral window set deep in the stone. "Their blasts seem to be getting… bigger. Bigger magic, is that possible?" He trailed off and paced back behind River, across to Amy and back again, flipping his screwdriver from hand to hand as he walked. "I suppose it's possible, gathering power, perhaps an accumulative effect?"

"I don't understand," Remus said, "Hogwarts is meant to be protected, it's the safest place in the Wizarding World. It's meant to be impenetrable."

"Well we got in here," River told him, "So other things can too."

"Reassuring," James mumbled, running a hand through his hair.

"Where is Dumbledore?" The Doctor asked, directing the question at Lily.

She seemed to have calmed down from earlier, and only stuttered once before answering him. "Uh-uhm, the portraits said that he's out there, strengthening the defences." She gestured outside. "I sent him an owl, but I don't know when he'll get the message -"

"Oh!" The Time Lord cried suddenly, banging his palm against the window pane. "Oh, oh, of course!"

"What is it, Sweetie?" River asked, watching as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the hourglass he'd taken from Dumbledore's office, turning it between his fingers and staring closely at the green crystals.

"The time difference, the two week time difference – the hour glass measures time slower when you're having a stimulating conversation, measures it on value and not length. Nifty trick. Old Time Lord technology, actually, you do know how we love to bend Time – as if it's not wibbley-wobbley enough already. Very interesting that it ended up in the Wizarding World, I must ask Professor Slughorn where and when he found it…"

"Doctor," Amy said with a sigh, "Is there a point to this?"

The Doctor pirouetted around and pointed at her. "Of course there's a point, Pond, there's always a point! And I am getting to it, right now. You can call me Mr. Straight to the Point. No, don't, that's a stupid name, absolutely rubbish. Still call me the Doctor."

River bowed her head in an attempt to hide the fact that she was laughing, but of course he caught her. He grabbed one of her curls and gently pulled it down into a straight line before letting it bounce back up again. She glared at him and he smiled apologetically and latched his hands around his braces. "You, River, sent the home box and we received it two weeks and a couple of decades later, because this dimension is running at a slower rate than ours. The time stream in this world is different to the one at home. The TARDIS jumped us forward two weeks to try to catch up to where we should be! She can't get back across the void and her power's all muddled, but she's still trying to sort things out. My clever girl!"

"So… Time moves slower here than at home?" Amy repeated, brow furrowed in concentration.

"Does that mean that you could spend a week here but you'd miss two weeks back in… wherever you're from?" Remus asked.

"Yes. No, not really. Not at all, actually. But think of it like that, if it helps," the Doctor said, but he was clearly distracted again. "Alright, if Dumbledore hasn't come to us then we're going to have to go to him. Onwards!"

He made a grand pointing gesture, like a general leading his soldiers into battle, and then flung open the front doors of Hogwarts and stepped out into the bright glow of a hundred spells being cast.

"What are you doing out here? Get back inside!" A witch came rushing over to the group, eyes wide with worry and her lips pressed into a thin, white line. "All students are meant to be in their common rooms, please return there _immediately_!" Her eyes fell on Amy, and her jaw went slack. "Miss Evans?"

"Erm, no, Amy Pond. Lily's there," Amy informed her, turning to point just over her shoulder.

"Professor McGonagall," Lily cried, stepping forward. "We're back, we know we've been gone two weeks, we'll explain later, but right now we need to find Dumbledore."

"All students are meant to be in their common rooms," McGonagall repeated, but the Doctor heard her resolve failing. "Why do you need to see Dumbledore?"

"Because we know what's made the Death Eaters think they're strong enough to take Hogwarts." The Doctor had that look in his old eyes again, the one that said that he was in charge and if anyone got in his way they would regret it, because he only gave one warning.

McGonagall saw the look, and she was smart enough to realise that she didn't need a warning. "He's over here," she said, leading them around the front steps to where Dumbledore stood with a giant of a man.

"Hullo!" The Doctor cried gleefully, forgetting for a moment that they were having potentially deadly spells fired at them and becoming transfixed by the man.

He was dressed in a moleskin overcoat and had a huge, black shaggy beard to match the shaggy, black mop of hair on top of his head, which stood at approximately double the Doctor's height. "It's not safe out here!" He said in his deep, booming voice, looking genuinely worried for the safety of the students hurrying along behind the Time Lord.

"Not safe is my middle name," the Doctor said carelessly, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and scanning him. "What's yours? Although perhaps your first name may be more useful."

"I'm Rubeus Hagrid," he said, throwing Dumbledore a worried look. He then added proudly, "Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts."

"Rubeus Hagrid, you are a very impressive man." The Time Lord glanced at the readings on the scanner and then tucked his screw driver back into his pocket.

"Half-giant," Hagrid corrected, sounding slightly embarrassed.

"Half-giant, of course you are," The Doctor agreed excitedly. "Marvellous!" He leant across to Amy and murmured, "Bound to be a bit of an awkward conception, between a giant and a human! Would it be rude if I asked which of his parents was the giant?"

Amy clapped a hand to her mouth and tried to disguise her laughter as a cough, spluttering, "Yes!"

"Ah. Right then," the Doctor strutted forward and enthusiastically shook hands with Dumbledore. "Good to see you again, Dumblydore." He leant forward and kissed the air either side of the Headmaster's cheeks. "So sorry that I ran away with a few of your students for a bit, there was a slight mishap in the TARDIS but never mind, we're all back safe and sound, no missing parts. _And _I've figured out what's behind all this!"

"Ahem," River coughed delicately, giving him a pointed look.

"Oh, all right, River helped too," he said, waving a hand at her. She smiled, placated.

"What is it, Doctor? Do you know how to stop it?" Dumbledore asked, his gaze intent and focused on the Doctor even as he shot another spell up at the invisible barrier floating above Hogwarts.

"It's the Daleks," The Doctor declared.

He heard gasps behind him, and then Amy rushed forward to grab his arm, squeezing it in a vice like grip. "Doctor, you can't be serious!"

"I am, Amy," he said, prying her hand from his arm and holding it tight in his. "And there's only thing that can stop a Dalek."

"What is it?" Dumbledore questioned, worry visible on his old face.

The Doctor grinned. "Me."

[[…]]

Death Eaters were nasty things. Dressed in long, hooded, black robes that hid their faces and all gathered together in a menacing group, the Doctor thought that they were some of the worst kind of people, so far removed from what it meant to be human it was a wonder that they were still people at all. That was how Dumbledore had described Voldemort, the leader of this army; a man who had become so twisted by greed and a need for power that his bloodlust had destroyed every trace of his humanity. If the Daleks were ever going to align themselves with a human, the Doctor wasn't surprised that they'd chosen him.

"Hellooo," the Time Lord called, coming to a stop just inside the front gates. "What are your names? Or shall I just refer to you collectively as Death Eaters?"

One of the Death Eaters stepped forward and drawled menacingly, "Who do you think you are, to refer to us at all?"

The Doctor smiled disarmingly. "I asked you first."

"We are Death Eaters, servants of the Dark Lord, and if you don't hand Hogwarts over to us we will take it by force," the Death Eater said.

"That's a big claim," the Doctor said, "coming from someone too scared to even show their face." There was a beat of silence, where the Doctor continued to smile at the crowd in front of him until they slowly, simultaneously pushed back their hoods. "Aha, much better! I definitely prefer talking to faces, don't you? Not faces on their own, I generally like them to be attached to bodies; although there was the Face of Boe, he was a lovely fellow, and he was just a head -"

"Enough!" The apparently in charge Death Eater demanded, holding out a hand threateningly. His long, platinum blonde hair shone in the dimming sunlight and his pale skin contrast with the black material of his robes. He was certainly cold, and the Doctor supposed he would have been intimidating, to weaker people. "We have revealed ourselves, now you must do the same."

"Not yet," the Doctor said, his voice level. "Tell me who you're working for."

"We work for the Dark Lord," the Death Eater repeated.

"Well who does _he _work for, then?" The Doctor exasperatedly. Honestly, humans. So _slow _sometimes.

"The Dark Lord works for no one," the Death Eater snarled.

The Time Lord gestured to the rest of the group. "What about you? Do any of you know who he's working with?" He was met with silence. His patience running out now, the Doctor's cheerfulness dropped away and his force bubbled to the surface as he stalked forward. "One of you knows something," he said in a low voice, "and if you don't tell me, right now, where they are, I will show you why they call me the Oncoming Storm."

"Doc-tor," a familiar voice sounded from the middle of the pack.

The Doctor rolled back on his heels. "Ah. There you are."

"Doc-TOR," the Dalek repeated as the Death Eaters stepped aside to let it move forward. "You are the Doc-TOR."

The Dalek was old and slightly battered, bronze and smaller than the new brightly coloured ones the Doctor had last encountered. It was weak and it had allied itself with humans, but the Doctor knew that this was all part of a larger plan and that every Dalek was dangerous. As if being in a completely new universe and having to deal with rogue witches and wizards wasn't enough. Right, so he had to gather all his thoughts and get a plan together. A plan, a plan – when had the Doctor ever worked with a pre-determined plan?

"I am the Doctor, and you're not meant to be here," the Time Lord said, talking directly to the Dalek now.

"Nei-ther are YOU," the Dalek stated, its eyestalk moving as it spoke.

"How did you get here?

"There are CRA-cks in the uni-VERSE," the Dalek explained. "You have de-STROY-ed man-y Dal-eks, but the Dal-EKS are SU-per-0IOR and some of US sur-VIVED."

"Yes, you have a habit of doing that," the Doctor said stonily. "So against the odds you survived and made your way to this universe through a crack. How?"

"A Ti-me Por-TAL was HI-jacked and we were BROUGHT here."

"How many of you are there?"

"En-ough." The Dalek's eyestalk followed the Time Lord as he stepped forward.

The Doctor growled, "How many?"

"Three."

"Ha," the Time Lord laughed, but it was mirthless. "So there's three stragglers floating around in a universe that you don't belong in, damaged and in hiding."

The Dalek's eyestalk raised up and its blaster moved threateningly. "DAL-eks are SUP-eri-OR, TH-ree of us is EN-ough to take con-TROL of this world. YOU know this, Doc-TOR."

The Doctor put his hands in the pockets of his trousers and said. "If three of you is enough to take over, why haven't you done it? You've lowered yourself to working with humans. That's not very Dalek of you."

There was silence again while the Dalek considered the Time Lord's words.

The blonde Death Eater decided to take advantage of the pause and said, "This _thing _needs to remember that the Dark Lord has extended it a courtesy by allowing it to join our ranks, and that it needs to respect him – and us."

"Ha!" The Doctor laughed at that, more genuinely than before - because the ignorance of these people was so astounding it was almost amusing - and the sound startled the group of Death Eaters. They flinched and looked at him as though he was mad. Then again, maybe he was a bit mad, confronting a group of wizards and a Dalek on his own like this. "You really don't know what you have there, do you?"

"It is a machine, recovered by the Dark Lord for our efforts," one of the Death Eaters explained. "They're weapons."

"_Weapons_," the Doctor said, his voice still tinted with bitter laughter. "You really think you can control them? They've got you tricked, made you think that they're working for you, happily helping your efforts. But this war of yours is tiny and insignificant to the Daleks. _They're _the ones using _you_, and once they have what they want they'll murder you in cold blood, like you're murdering innocent people now."

"This war is far from insignificant," the blonde Death Eater snapped.

All humour disappeared from the Doctor's tone as he turned to ice. "You humans, always thinking of yourselves as the centre of the universe. The Daleks have fought in a war that endangered all of Time and Space – do you really think that the Wizarding World will be satisfying enough for them?"

"We WON the TIME War, Doc-tor," the Dalek said suddenly. "We will win THIS one TOO."

"What are you doing?!" The Doctor roared, all restraint vanished in a flash. "What's your plan?!"

"We will WIN," the Dalek repeated. "The Doc-tor can-NOT stop us. We WILL WIN."

"You will _lose,_" the Doctor said, his voice completely flat and his eyes flashing. "You don't belong here, Dalek, and I will send you home."

The Dalek made no response.

The blonde Death Eater declared, "The Dark Lord has faith in these weapons. Hogwarts is unprepared to face them."

"Oh yeah? Go on then," the Doctor taunted, holding his arms out sideways. "Go on. If Hogwarts is so unprepared to face the Daleks, why don't you kill me? Exterminate me. You've never been able to do it in our universe, what makes you think you'll be able to do it here?"

"Ex-ter-min-ate," the Dalek said, rolling forward. "EX-ter-min-ATE. EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" It shot at the Doctor, but the shield surrounding Hogwarts was still holding strong and the beam didn't penetrate.

"Doctor!" Amy's voice suddenly rang out across the grounds as she darted forward and ran to his side. "Doctor, stop!"

The Time Lord dropped his arms back to his sides and turned his icy gaze on her. "Amy, I told you to stay away."

"You are AM-elia POND. YOU are an ass-OC-iate of the Doc-tor. You WILL be EX-TER-MIN-ATED!" The Dalek shot again, this time aiming for Amy. She jumped backwards, but, again, the beam didn't make it past the barrier.

The Doctor gripped Amy's wrist and held her still, trying to calm himself down enough to be reassuring. He saw panic in her eyes, and the fact that he wasn't sure if that panic was directed at him or their enemies was enough to worry him.

"You get one warning," the Doctor told the Death Eaters and lone Dalek, in a menacing voice that left no room for argument. "This is it. Leave now, and I'll let you go. No one has to get hurt. But if you continue to try to break into Hogwarts, I'll be forced to stop you. And believe me, I _will _stop you."

"Doctor, they're not going to negotiate," Amy whispered in his ear. "Please, come back up to the castle."

"You cannot stop us, muggle," the blonde Death Eater said confidently.

"Oh, I'm no muggle," the Doctor said, taking a few steps backward. "I'm a Time Lord."

The dumbfounded expressions on the Death Eaters' faces and the Dalek's repeated cries of "_EX-TER-MIN-ATE, EX-TER-MIN-ATE!_" were enough to assure him that, even if they wouldn't back down, he'd planted the seed of fear. Voldemort would be here to see him soon enough.

* * *

**a.n. **Sorry about the lack of Amy in this chapter! I didn't intend for it to be so long, but I got carried away, and yeah... a very Doctor-centric chapter. All angtsy and no flirty. I'm disappointed, too. But it's okay! The next chapter will be lots of fun and flirting and running around. Woohoo. Please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter; are you still enjoying it? What did you think of the Dalek? The more reviews the faster I'll update! Thanks for reading, I appreciate it so much. If I haven't already replied personally to your review I'll do that within the next few days. Thanks for all your support, you're amazing!


	9. Double Entendre

_Nine – Double Entendre_

Amy liked to think that she knew her Doctor pretty well. They'd been travelling together for a while now, spending every single day in each other's company, and she'd known him practically her whole life. Even if he was an ancient alien and she was a mere mortal, she felt like she understood him. She was beginning to recognise the distant look he got when something reminded him of his painful past and he kind of just shut down so he wouldn't have to grieve. She knew that he rambled when he was stalling for time, but she also knew he did it partly because he just loved to show off by talking about things that made sense to no one but him. She recognised the fact that he got excited by the prospect of a challenge, but that he was terrified of anyone being hurt because of him. She knew that he carried the weight of a million things she could never possibly understand on his old shoulders, but that he could fix everyone else's problems almost as easily as he fixed up his stupid bowtie. She lived for that look he gave her and _only_ her, the one where his smile reached his eyes right before he leaned in to give her a kiss on the forehead, the one that said _I'm so proud of you, my magnificent Amelia Pond_. Her good old Raggedy Doctor, who worked so hard to solve the world's problems and made sure he never had time to dwell on his own. He'd taken her out of boring, little Leadworth and shown her the stars, and because of that she was certain he could do anything. Amy trusted him with her life, whole heartedly. But she wondered, sometimes, if he trusted himself with it.

She sat beside River on the front steps of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, her elbow resting on her knee and her chin propped up on her fist, eyes following the Doctor as he paced in front of them. He kept throwing her worried glances out of the corner of his eye, and she kept trying to ask him what was wrong, but he just shushed her and kept on pacing, muttering incomprehensibly to himself.

"Leave him," River said softly, "He's alright. Just trying to figure things out."

"Like how to get rid of the Daleks?" James asked, skipping down from the entrance hall and plonking himself down beside Amy. He held out a plate piled high with chicken sandwiches and Cornish pasties.

River grabbed a sandwich and took a bite before saying, "Right now, he's wondering who could have had the knowledge of how to hi-jack a Time Portal, and trying to decide if that action alone would have been disruptive enough to rip a hole in the universe."

"Do you ever listen to yourself talk and then think, _wow, what am I even saying_?" Sirius asked, appearing beside James and yanking the plate out of his hands. He held it out to Amy with a flirtatious smile, she took a sandwich, and he spread himself out languidly on the steps with the plate resting on his stomach. He put a whole pastie in his mouth and said, "Because I've been inside your space ship and I _still_ don't understand what's happening here."

"Coming from the boy who uses a twig to cast magic spells," Amy muttered, rolling her eyes.

River teased, "Don't worry, it's all a bit complicated; I wouldn't expect you boys to understand."

"Hey now!" Both Sirius and James sat up straight, the former nearly knocking the food onto the ground in the process. James continued, "I understand perfectly. Just because Sirius is as thick as a post -"

"Oi, everyone knows I'm the cleverest of our group," Sirius protested.

"He's deluded," James said in a faux conspiratorial voice to Amy, gently nudging her in the ribs with his elbow. "He thinks he's the best looking out of our group, too -"

"Ahem," Sirius interrupted, looking down his nose at James. "I _know _I'm the best looking in the _school_."

"Oh, of course you are!" James said with a sarcastic laugh. "And I suppose you're Quidditch captain and Head Boy, too."

Sirius smiled lopsidedly and relaxed back on the steps. "Nah, I was offered the rolls but turned 'em down – didn't want the rest of the guys getting too jealous of my natural skill. Thought it was bad enough that they already had to come second in everything else."

James laughed and punched him firmly in the arm. "You twat."

Amy smirked at the ego contest and asked, "What's Quidditch?"

"Only the best sport in the world!" James exclaimed, his hazel eyes lighting up. "Two teams flying around a stadium, trying to throw a ball called a quaffle through hoops at either end to score, all the while dodging bludgers and waiting for the seeker to catch the golden snitch -"

"Whoa," Amy held a hand out. "None of that makes any sense to me. But did you say _flying_?"

"Yeah, flying," Sirius answered, "You know, on a broom."

Amy turned to River and gripped her knee, grinning excitedly. "They fly on _broomsticks_! Just like in the stories, River, can you believe it? This is _mad_."

"Is that a compliment where you're from, 'mad'?" James inquired.

Sirius answered him, "Nah mate, I think it means she thinks we're bonkers."

"Some of us, maybe," James said with a smile.

"The best always are." Sirius grinned back.

River laughed and put her hand on top of Amy's. "It's pretty impressive here, I will admit."

"Doesn't it get uncomfortable, riding a broomstick?" Amy asked, tilting her head to the side.

Sirius leant over towards her and arched an eyebrow. "Not if you're already used to having something incredibly large between your legs."

"Ha!" James laughed and pushed him away. "Like your boyfriend's -"

He was quickly cut off by Sirius exclaiming, "Watch what you say in front of the ladies, Prongs! Where _are _your manners?"

"I'm not the one thinking with the smaller head," James retorted.

"You always do have such a fat head, as Lily loves to point out," Sirius replied, smirking at his mate.

"Yes, girls, you're both very pretty," River drawled, rolling her eyes at the teenage boys.

"Doctor!" Amy called out excitedly, ignoring the scene going on beside her. "Doctor, they use broomsticks to fly here! Isn't that just _mad_?!"

The Doctor looked up at Amy, his eyes quickly scanning her face, and then he sprang forward and pulled her up off the steps into standing position. River immediately jumped to her feet as the Doctor spun Amy around in a circle, scanning her with his sonic as he did so. When she was facing him again he stopped her by gripping her shoulders, and rested his forehead against hers.

"Amy," he breathed, "You really shouldn't have let the Dalek see you."

"I know," she said sulkily, lowering her eyes. "You've already told me, and I've already apologised."

"Yes," the Doctor said, planting a quick kiss on the top of her head and stepping back. "And I'm very glad you have a thing for costumes, because now you're going to need to dress up."

"I do not have a _thing _for costumes," Amy protested.

"Kiss-o-gram," the Time Lord said pointedly, and she immediately clamped her mouth shut and glared at him.

"What's a kiss-o-gram?" Sirius asked, hauling himself to his feet. "Sounds like something I'd be interested in."

"How did you explain it, Amy? You go to parties in costumes and kiss people?" The Time Lord said, just to annoy her.

At the astonished and intrigued looks James and Sirius gave her, Amy snapped, "It's a laugh! Or it was. I don't do that anymore."

River said breathily, "You can get paid for doing that? Oh, all those wasted opportunities. I'd be rich if I'd charged…"

Amy couldn't tell from her tone if she was joking; she had a feeling that the other woman was serious, so she giggled, covering her astonished expression with her hands. River smirked as the Doctor turned away from her, looking thoroughly uncomfortable, and straightened his bowtie. How someone as flirty as River Song could end up with someone as easily embarrassed as the Doctor, Amy wasn't sure, but the way the two of them interacted made her sure that they were a couple – maybe not now, but definitely in the future.

"What sort of costumes?" Sirius asked Amy seductively.

"Never mind about that!" Amy said, thoroughly annoyed. "What costume do I have to wear now, Doctor?"

At that moment Lily came out onto the front steps, looking a bit stressed. Her emerald green eyes darted across each member of the group before settling on James. She gave him a small smile before sighing, "James, Dumbledore's called an emergency prefect meeting, we need you in here."

"Lily! Just the girl I wanted to see," The Doctor said happily, and she turned her head to smile at him. He beamed back as he told her, "We're going to need to borrow one of your uniforms."

[[…]]

Hogwarts was huge, and all of the corridors looked the same, and Amy wondered if it had taken Lily the entire six years she'd been attending the school to figure out how to get anywhere. Around every corner there stretched another long, grey hallway lined with wooden doors and maybe some windows that offered stunning views of the Scottish countryside, but there weren't any people, and even though daylight was illuminating their path Amy thought there was almost something creepier about an abandoned school during the day than at night. Professor McGonagall had said that all the students were in their common rooms; safely tucked away while the staff tried to get rid of the Death Eaters. But as she followed Lily through Hogwarts, she thought that the safest place for anyone to be was undoubtedly right beside the Doctor. Amy was so busy wondering what big scheme he'd thought up to save everyone this time that she didn't recognise where her doppelganger had led her until her foot was already in the air, poised to step onto the very same staircase that had moved her away from the Doctor the previous night.

"They're – the stairs, they're not going to move again, are they?" She hesitated, looking up to see which landing the staircase was attached to.

"Oh, did they move on you last time?" Lily gave her a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry, we should be fine now. Even if they do move, as long as we're on the same staircase together, we'll be right."

Not wanting to be left on her own again, Amy quickly stepped up off the landing and followed Lily up the stairs. "So that's normal, then - Moving staircases?" She asked, keeping a tight grip on the railing the entire time.

"At Hogwarts, yeah. Tricks the first years quite a bit, but you get used to it." Lily threw a reassuring smile over her shoulder. "It's amazing, the things that can seem normal if you experience them long enough."

"Oh, I know all about that," Amy replied, smiling as she thought of all the impossible things she'd got to experience with the Doctor.

"Ah, of course you do! You're used to travelling through space, magic probably isn't all that impressive compared to some of the things you've seen." Lily didn't even stumble as the staircase gave a sudden lurch and swung sideways. She turned round to face Amy and said, "Sorry, just hold on to the railing and you'll be right."

"Yeah." Amy's grip on the bannister was so tight that her knuckles had gone white. "Magic is still pretty impressive."

With a slight _thud _the staircase settled at a new landing. Amy hurriedly followed Lily up and back onto solid, unmoving ground, and started when she saw a familiar painting in front of her.

"_Newt strings_," Lily declared nonsensically, striding over to the huge portrait and looking straight at the overweight woman lounging in it.

"This painting," Amy said, standing just behind Lily and pointing at the intrigued looking subject, "I saw it last night. It swung open and – and James stepped out of it."

"Lily, I wasn't aware you had an identical twin!" The painted woman said, giving them a charitable smile.

"We're not twins," Amy corrected.

At the same time Lily said, "I don't." The two girls shared a glance before the younger one continued, "It's a long story, and we're in a bit of a hurry, so can you please let us in?"

"There's been so much gossip around the castle the past few weeks, what with you disappearing like that!" The woman in the picture seemed oblivious, waving a bloated hand around her head as she prattled on. "Hogwarts has never seen such drama before!"

"Yes, it's all very exciting," Lily sighed. "Can we please get in to the common room?"

The lady crossed her arms and huffed, "Well excuse me for trying to make polite conversation!"

"_Newt strings_," Lily repeated, more pointedly this time, and the portrait swung forwards to reveal a giant hole in the wall.

Amy caught a glimpse of a scowl on the painted woman's face as she stepped into the opening. "A secret entrance," she breathed.

"Protected by the Fat Lady," Lily said with a shake of her head. "She can be such a pain. The password's _Newt strings_, by the way, in case you need to get in here later on."

Amy began to ask, "Where does it lead?"

But before she could finish the question they were out of the short tunnel and being swarmed by people, all crying out and pushing and shouting; "Lily's back!" "I told you they weren't just rumours!" "Are they all back then?" "Where have you been, Lily?" "What's with the double, again? I've forgotten." "Yeah, can you explain what's going on?" "Have the Death Eaters left?"

"Everyone be quiet!" Lily yelled authoritatively, and a hush fell over the crowd of students. She gestured for them to create some space, and they all shuffled a few steps back. She pushed her hair back off her face – a habit of James's, Amy had noticed – and said, "Okay, we're in a hurry so I'm going to keep it short; The Marauders and I, we're all back, safe. Amy and the Doctor took us on a… trip. The Death Eaters haven't moved, but the Doctor has a plan and everything's going to be fine, so just stay calm."

"What's the plan?" A pretty blonde haired girl asked, pushing her way through to the front of the crowd.

"Marlene!" Lily's face lit up and she rushed forward to give the girl a hug.

"Long time no see," Marlene smirked when they parted. "You go running off in a space ship and don't even invite me -"

"Aw, you know it wasn't like that," the redhead said sadly. "I'm so sorry."

Marlene shrugged. "It's fine, I knew you'd come back eventually. You only just got the job of Head Girl, as if you were going to give up it," she joked. "Now what do you need us to do?"

Lily turned back around to face the bewildered Amy, who had inadvertently gotten herself into a staring competition with the congregation of students standing in front of her. "Amy, what did the Doctor tell you?"

Amy blinked and looked from the crowd to Lily and back again. "Ah, the Professors have told you to stay in your common rooms, right?" She waited for the students to nod before continuing on. "Well ignore that, because the Doctor wants each of you stationed at a window, with your wands, ready to act on his signal."

"But the professors said it's not safe out there!" A small pre-teen girl with her hair in pigtail-plaits squeaked, hands tucked up inside the sleeves of her jumper.

"Okay, on second thoughts, maybe the eleven year olds can stay in here," Amy said.

"Right, so, first and second years stay in here, but everyone else – pair up and stand guard at a window," Lily said, in total prefect mode now, pointing and bossing people about like she was born to be in charge.

"But what's the signal?" A gangly, freckled sixteen year old boy asked. "How will we know when to cast our spells? And what spell are we even casting?"

Everyone turned to Amy. Her eyes widened as she realised that she didn't have a clue. "Look, I don't know the details, but the Doctor is on his way up here and he'll explain it to you."

"Can he really beat the Death Eaters?" A dark-skinned girl asked hesitantly.

Amy gave her a bright smile and nodded confidently. "The Doctor can beat anything."

"Alright, everyone knows what they're doing?" Lily steepled her hands together and then waved them towards the door. "Off you go then!"

The older year levels filed out of the portrait hole, leaving the young ones standing around looking lost. Now that the circular room wasn't jammed full of people, Amy could see that it housed an eclectic assortment of comfortable looking chairs, which the first and second years were slowly lowering themselves into, and that a large fireplace was set into the wall. The whole room had a red and gold colour scheme and felt very welcoming and warm. Marlene was the last to exit the common room, and she pulled Lily in for another hug and whispered something in her ear that made her laugh before leaving. As soon as the blonde was out of sight, Lily grasped Amy's hand and pulled her across the room to a set of stairs that must have led up to her dorm.

She paused at the bottom and turned to the scared looking children behind them, and said, "Everything's going to be fine. Just keep yourselves busy and try not to stress."

Looking at their innocent little faces, Amy felt compelled to say something, too, so she added, "Don't worry, you'll be magnificent."

Oh, God, she was beginning to sound like the Doctor.

"It's so _weird_. They're the same person, but, like… _not,_" a girl whispered to her friend, staring at the two of them as though they were aliens.

Maybe Amy _was_ an alien to these people, she thought. Did coming from another dimension make her an alien? What an odd thought. Even by her standards, as the companion of a nine hundred year old Time Lord, this was all a bit much to keep track of. Different dimensions, an alternate version of herself, witches and wizards and _daleks_ – and now she was jogging up a spiral staircase in a magic school to put on a uniform and pretend she was a witch. Well, Amy had always wanted adventure; Life was just granting her wish with a bit more enthusiasm than she'd expected.

Lily's dorm was at the very top of the tower, of course, and housed six four-poster beds with matching red curtains and duvets. She went to the bed closest to the door and started rifling through a huge wooden trunk at the foot of it, tossing out heavy text books and quills onto the floor. Amy glimpsed a bundle of letters tied with red string and a neatly folded pile of black robes, on top of which sat a stereotypical pointed witches hat. So it was _really _like the stories then, she thought in amazement.

She stood in the centre of the room, taking the various items of clothing her doppelganger was passing up to her, regarding each piece closely. Amy wasn't utterly obsessed with fashion, choosing comfort over the latest trends just as often as she dressed to show off her assets, and she hadn't really minded her school uniform while she'd been a student. But, like most kids, she'd been glad to be rid of it when she'd graduated, so the fact that she was now twenty one years old and holding a scarily similar uniform in her hands made her feel a little bit of resentment; she'd joined the Doctor to travel through Time and Space, not to revert back to being a high school student, even a _magical _high school student. She tried to think of it as just another costume, just another character to play. Amy had always enjoyed a spot of role-play.

"The grey's a bit boring, but it could be a lot worse," Lily mused as she draped a red and gold tie over Amy's shoulder.

"Thanks." She watched Lily kneel down before the trunk again, tossing a small green book out of it. After bouncing once the paperback landed on the floor, cover up. "_Quidditch Through the Ages,_" she read aloud. "Hey, James and Sirius were telling me about Quidditch before -"

Lily poked her head up and sighed, "Oh Merlin, did they confuse you? Sorry, once they get started talking about it they never stop."

Amy laughed, "Yeah, I don't have a clue how the game works; all I remember is that they fly around on broomsticks."

"Yep. Seems a bit weird to a muggle, I know; when I first found out I was gobsmacked. But having the latest broom is like…" Lily bit her bottom lip. "Well, different brooms have different qualities and speeds, kind of like cars."

"So it's a bit more complicated than just picking up the kitchen broom and taking off for a spin, then?"

"Just a bit!" Lily chucked.

"Does everyone fly?" Amy inquired, taking the tie off her shoulder and throwing it over her forearm. "Do _you_ play Quidditch?"

Lily shook her head, still laughing. "Oh, no. I'm not the best at flying; still get a bit jittery, that high up with nothing but a broom between me and a fall to my death, you know? I still enjoy it though. It's good fun, once you get the hang of it. I did try out for the House Quidditch team in my third year, with Marlene… Didn't make it, unfortunately."

"You tried your best though, didn't you, Lils?"

Lily shot to her feet and Amy spun around to see James standing in the doorway of the dorm, smirking at them.

Lily lifted her chin up and fiddled with the hem of her jumper. "I don't know what you mean, James."

"Of course you don't," he said teasingly, sauntering into the room and flipping up the hem of her skirt. "You cheated. You wore a skirt."

She quickly pushed the offending article of clothing back down and narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend. "I didn't wear a skirt."

"Well, that would have worked too," he said, waggling an eyebrow at her.

Amy pulled a scandalised expression on her physical double's behalf, but, looking at Lily's legs, she couldn't help but agree. They really did have quite a good set of pins.

Lily herself was frowning, deep in thought. She tilted her head to the side and said, "No, no I did wear a skirt." She then quickly tried her best to look innocent as she said, "But it was any old skirt, just the school one."

James rolled his eyes. "Moral of the story is, Lily doesn't fly. My skills more than make up for that, though."

"Oh shut up, stupid," Lily scowled and turned back to Amy, mouthing, "_Boys._"

"Seriously, if you want to go for a fly, Amy, I'd be happy to take you," James continued on. "I _am _Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, after all."

"Yes, yes, and it's a miracle that your broom can carry the weight of your big fat head," Lily drawled.

James looked offended, holding a hand against his heart. "Nice to hear what you really think of me," he joked, swaggering forward and draping his arm around her shoulders. "Keep up that attitude and I might just break up with you."

"You'd never," Lily said, clearly not even remotely threatened by the statement. The corners of her pink lips were lifted in a small smile, and she tilted her head up so James could plant a kiss on her cheek.

Watching them, Amy felt strangely hollow. A shiver ran down her spine; it was as though her body was remembering the sensation of being held lovingly like that, but her mind couldn't quite recall it. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her head, and said, "So you guys are pretty serious then?"

James looked up at Amy with an expression that unsettled her – there was worry in his eyes, and _pity_. Why on Earth would he be pitying her?

Lily must have noticed his sudden stiffness, too, because her mouth parted and then closed again, and she nudged him with her shoulder, prompting him to answer.

"I'm very serious," he finally responded, wrenching his gaze back to his girlfriend. "Lily isn't as keen on having such a serious relationship as I am right now, but that's okay; I'll wait for her. She's worth waiting for."

Lily turned slightly so she could look at James straight on and murmured, "You already waited three years."

He shrugged casually, but kept his eyes locked on hers. "I'd wait a thousand years for you."

Lily seemed slightly dumfounded by that declaration, and so Amy gave an exaggerated sigh and groaned, "Control your hormones."

The couple laughed, and the serious moment passed by.

Lily asked James, "So what do you want then?"

He nodded at Amy. "The Doctor sent me. He said to tell you, '_hurry up, Pond, this isn't a catwalk_' and to tell you that there's no '_decent_' food here. Whatever his idea of decent is, I don't know. I thought the Cornish pasties were pretty good, myself."

"Aw, he gets cranky when he's hungry," Amy chuckled. She picked up the tie and whipped James in the side with it. "Now would you get out of here so I can get changed in peace?"

"Sorry!" James said, holding his hands up and backing out the door.

"I think that's everything you need; I hope it's comfortable. We'll just be down in the common room," Lily said as she followed him out, pulling the door to behind her.

Alone in the dorm, Amy held up the red and gold tie and twisted up one corner of her mouth in contemplation. The Gryffindor colour scheme looked alright with her hair, she supposed. And she'd always liked lions. With a shrug she dropped the uniform onto the bed beside her and got changed, neatly folding her own clothes and storing them in the trunk at the foot of Lily's bed once she'd gotten dressed. She stopped to have a look in the full length mirror hanging on the wall on her way out, fluffing her hair up and turning to see how the pleated skirt looked from the back. She decided that, all things considered, she didn't mind herself in a school uniform – even if it did make her feel like she was seventeen again.

[[-]]

The Doctor loved children. There was something so miraculously pure about them, an innocence and a sense of faith and trust that adults just didn't have. Children never asked stupid questions like grown-ups did, because they were so in awe of the world that absolutely everything seemed possible to them and so they accepted it all with open arms. They were still filled with a burning curiosity, not yet crushed by unmet expectations and the disappointments that life so often handed out. Having made his way past the older students who had followed Amy's instructions and positioned themselves in pairs at windows all along the corridors, telling each of them very clearly what he needed them do, the Doctor was extremely relieved to enter the common room and find it full of even younger faces. The little students were staring at him as though he were a god, and he beamed back at them, almost giddily, because they were going to remain safe in here, away from even the possibility of anything harmful. Not that the other students were going to get hurt, no, there was no chance of that happening, not at all, because he refused – absolutely, steadfastly _refused _– to have another death on his conscience. Not a single one, and especially not a life so young as theirs. No, _everyone _would be safe today. But these little ones, so young and small and full of wide-eyed wonder, they were _particularly _safe.

One girl sat by the fireplace, practically drowning in her far-too-large black school robes, with ginger hair that fell just to her shoulders and a sorrowful expression. She was the only person in the room not looking at the Doctor, and so, naturally, she was the only he paid attention to. Okay, it might have helped a _little_ that she was ginger; he did always love a ginger. But he was mainly drawn to her because she was crying, her small shoulders shaking with the effort to suppress her sobs, and he had to put a stop to that. He vaulted over an end table and landed in front of her, making her jump. In the brief moment where she looked up he saw tears welling in her big, blue eyes, spilling over her lashes and leaving white trails down her pale cheeks.

"Do excuse me," he said apologetically, bending his knees to get to her eyelevel. "Bit rusty on the landing, haven't done much jumping lately. Lots of running, there's always a lot of running. But these legs haven't got much of a chance to vault, which is a bit of a shame. Maybe I should incorporate it into more of my daily activities…"

"Please don't," River said dryly from somewhere behind him.

Giving her no more acknowledgment than a quick, dismissive wave of his hand, the Doctor gave this little girl his most charming smile and said, "Hello, I'm the Doctor. What's your name?"

"A-Ariel," she said quietly, hiccupping slightly at the beginning.

"What a _lovely _name!" He exclaimed. _Like a name in a fairy tale_.

She was like another little Amelia, he thought. Sadder and scareder and probably not as feisty, but he liked her immediately.

"Are we really safe in here?" Ariel asked timidly, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"You _bet _you're safe in here," the Doctor said brightly. "In fact, so long as I'm here, you're safe in all of Hogwarts. And even when I'm not here, I suppose, I've heard it's meant to be pretty safe then too. Not _as _safe, but, yes." She sniffed but didn't say anything, so he asked, "How old are you, Ariel?"

"Eleven," she told him.

Of course she was. She was tiny, but they didn't let you in until you were eleven. Good thing he knew exactly how to cheer up an eleven year old girl – lollies. This place had no decent food – most schools didn't though, so the Time Lord wasn't really surprised – so he couldn't offer her some fish fingers and custard, which was this regeneration's go-to comfort food. But perhaps there was something else she might like.

He leant forward and asked conspiratorially, "And do you like ice-cream?"

"Yes." That was good, there was a bit more confidence in that answer. Ice-cream always did bring out the best in people.

"Hang on one moment." The Doctor stood up and began rifling through the pockets of his tweed jacket. The left pocket contained his 3D glasses, an empty jammy dodgers packet, and some form of monetary note - he wasn't sure what denomination it was, or which time or planet it was from, because money bored him. In his right pocket there was his psychic paper and slingshot, and, hm, he didn't know what that was, best not to check with children in the vicinity. He hoped he hadn't left it in the other jacket… Inside pockets, perhaps? Hour glass, sonic screwdriver, and, and, and – _and there it was_! He pulled out a brightly wrapped frozen ice-cream treat and held it out to Ariel. "Ta-Da!"

Her blue eyes widened. "Was that in your pocket?" He nodded, and she asked, "Has it melted?"

The Time Lord gently put pressure on the treat and found it to be solid. Well, as solid as ice-creams were meant to be. "Nope, still good and perfectly edible. Here you go," he said cheerily, passing it over to her.

She unwrapped it and, upon seeing that it was really, truly an ice-cream and not some sort of trick, rewarded him with a huge, happy smile. "Thank you!" She exclaimed as she bit into it.

"You're welcome," he replied, standing up and ruffling her hair. "Ice-cream always cheers Amelia up, too."

"There's ice-cream?"

The Doctor spun on his heel, hands up in the air, to see Amy standing at the foot of the stairs that wound their way down from the girls' dorms. She was now dressed in the regulation grey Hogwarts uniform – and absolutely, physically identical to Lily. Well, there were slight lines at the corners of her eyes that Lily didn't have, but to a _human_, the two girls were identical.

"It's uncanny," River said in astonishment, making her way over to stand beside the Doctor.

He flashed her a brief smile, which he was glad to note she returned, and allowed himself a moment of silent congratulations for being so clever. With Amy disguised and River by his side he was certain they'd get everyone out of this unscathed.

"Merlin, two Lilys," Remus breathed, staring at Amy.

Peter couldn't seem to decide which of the girls he should look at, and so was constantly swinging his head back and forth between the two, as though he was watching a fast-paced match of tennis. "This is so weird."

"Imagine the possibilities!" Sirius crowed, throwing one arm out towards each of them. "And one of them used to be a kiss-o-gram, too! She actually made a living from _kissing people_!"

An impressed looking James opened his mouth to speak, but Lily slapped him on the cheek before he could even get the words out. The Time Lord imagined Amy was grateful for that; for one so forward, she was a bit sensitive when it came to her past occupation.

"_Ow_," James complained, lowering the hand he'd had pointed at his girlfriend. "I didn't even say anything."

She ignored him and peeled herself away from the Marauders, whom she'd been chatting amicably with before Amy's arrival, and went to examine her now-mirror-image.

"Do I really look like that?" She asked, her voice low and disbelieving. She walked in a circle around the older girl, scanning her up and down for differences. She wouldn't find any, of course.

The Doctor was focused on Amy, and so he saw the glint in her eye and the smirk on her lips as she raised her eyebrow and said in sultry tones, "Yeah, yeah you do."

Oh, she was using her English accent, that was a nice touch. The Doctor felt a short burst of pride as he thought _clever girl! _But it was soon overridden by disbelief at the way the two girls were now looking each other up and down.

"Mmm." Lily smiled as she met Amy's eye, suddenly looking smug. "_I'd_ put you on the Quidditch team."

"Oh, I bet you would," Amy said flirtily, pouting her lips ever so slightly.

Right, that was going no further.

The Doctor made a noise of disgust and said darkly, "Oh, this is how it all ends; Pond, flirting with herself. True love at last." Both girls turned to give him unimpressed looks, kicking their hips out and looking a bit intimidating, actually. He turned to the Marauders and said, as though he'd only just remembered they were in the room, "Oh, sorry, James."

James looked positively dazed by the sight before him, but managed to respond with, "I think you mean Potter, not Pond."

It became very clear which girl was Lily when she screwed her face up and looked at him as though he were an idiot. Which was valid, the Doctor thought, what with the way his jaw was hanging open. "No, I think he means Evans, you prat," she said smartly.

There was a tug on the Doctor's sleeve and he looked down to see Ariel standing beside him, her ice-cream finished and her happiness restored. "Are they the same person?" She asked innocently.

"Look, Amy, it's a little you!" The Doctor declared gleefully, too excited to respond to her question. He pointed down to the eleven year old and grinned at his companion.

"Just how many of me are there!" Amy snapped, eyebrows knitted into a frown and mouth open in disbelief.

"Well, she's not _actually _another you… Her face is all different and she's not as freakishly brave…" The Doctor twisted his fingers together. He looked down at Ariel and told her in a kind voice, "They are the same person, yes, let's go with that, because the whole truth would probably take too long explain and you'd get bored three quarters of the way through and stop paying attention, so yes, Amy and Lily are the same person."

"How are we meant to tell them apart?" River asked.

"That's the point, River," the Time Lord said, "You're not _supposed _to be able to tell them apart."

"_Yes, _I _know _that's the point," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "But it might be useful for _us _to know whether we're talking to Amy or Lily. It'll get very confusing very quickly otherwise, and we don't need any more confusion than what we have already."

The Doctor thought about it for a few milliseconds, before realising that River was right. She was awfully good. No wonder his future self liked her so much. And his present self, too, if he was being honest. She was enigmatic and a risk taker and absolutely infuriating sometimes, but she was _good_. He was growing quite fond of her.

"Right, how are we going to tell you apart?" The Doctor scanned the room, looking for possible additions he could make to one of their outfits, and his eyes settled on a small, red badge attached to the left lapel of James's robes. "Aha!" He vaulted back across the table and ran over to James. He unpinned the badge, which was in the shape of a crest and had the words _HEAD BOY _emblazoned across it, and went over to the girls. "Which one of you wants to wear the badge?"

"Oh, of course!" Lily said, as she'd just realised something completely obvious. "My Head Girl badge. That'll do the trick. You can put that one back, I'm not walking around with a badge that calls me a boy."

That was being a bit picky, the Doctor thought, but when Amy also declined to wear the badge he sighed and said, "_Fine then_, go on and get your own badge, Evans. Women, so _fussy_."

Rather than give the badge he was holding back to James - because he was standing all the way over the side of the room and the badge was shiny, and the Doctor liked shiny things, shiny things were cool - he pinned it onto his breast pocket and admired it. He heard Lily's hurried footsteps as she ran upstairs to retrieve her badge, and turned to Amy with a smile.

"How are we doing, Pond?"

"Good," she told him. She stepped closer and asked in hushed, Scottish tones, "Doctor, what do you have planned? I know you'll get rid of the bad guys, but you do have a plan, don't you?"

He bopped her lightly on the nose and said, "I have something very much like a plan, but _better_."

"Better than a plan? How can it better than a plan?" Amy asked disbelievingly.

"Because _I_ came up with it," he replied with a lopsided grin.

The two of them looked to Sirius as he sidled up to Amy and said, "You look good in that uniform, Amy."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Amy replied instantaneously, and the Doctor bit back a laugh.

"Can't a guy give a girl a compliment without being shot down?" Sirius asked, still leaning towards her.

"Not when it's you," Remus told him, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

"Padfoot, would you please stop hitting on my girlfriend's double? It's really creepy, even by your standards," James said.

Sirius ignored them and said to Amy, "I was just going to ask if you were interested in some role play -"

Before he could finish his sentence, her hand had made stinging contact with his cheek. "No," she repeated firmly.

Lily bounded back down the stairs at that very moment, in the process of pinning her Head Girl badge to her shirt. When she saw Sirius rubbing his red cheek, she laughed and said, "She's another _me, _Sirius. Did you really think she'd fall for your lines?"

"Boys never learn," River tutted from the armchair she'd draped herself across.

Grinning, the Doctor looped an arm comfortably over Amy's and Lily's shoulders. They were about to face the Daleks, but with a group this lively and with so much life left to live, he thought, there was no way they could lose.

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**a.n. **Not sure how I feel about this chapter. It's super long, wow. I tried to make it amusing, I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know in a review! Thank you for reading, keep on being magnificent.


	10. Riddles and Running

**a.n. **I'm sorry. Exams were disgusting, but they're over now and it's Summer break for me. _Typos edited on the 12th of November_, and I apologise profusely for the lack of Marauders, they're the stars of the next chapter if that's any consolation. I apologise also for the fact the Doctor seems a little bit Ten-ish in this chapter, I've been re-watching Tennant's era and reading it back I realised I slipped into his mannerisms a little bit. Enjoy, and PLEASE REVIEW!

* * *

_Ten - Riddles and Running_

The power of a name was something the Doctor understood very well. In fact, he knew a lot more about it than almost every other being in every universe there was. A name could strike fear into the hearts of enemies, could stretch across Time and Space in an echo of one's deeds and accomplishments, a message or a warning to all of those to come after – Or perhaps, more accurately, it was a _title _that could do these things. Because it was a title, after all, which the people of the wizarding world were too scared to say, choosing a new one instead, in the form of the longer and unnecessarily complicated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was a _title, _after all, which the Doctor himself used as a shield. Because names were a lot more than all that. Numerous societies throughout history believed that it was the name which held a person's entire identity, and that if the name was known then the soul could be controlled. A name was not a source of power for the individual who owned it, but a vulnerability; a weak point that, if used correctly, could stop someone in their tracks.

Before the library – that _damned _library - he hadn't heard his name, his _real name_, in so long that when River had whispered it in his ear the sound of it had been surreal. And overwhelmingly, absolutely, utterly _terrifying. _Because it meant that she knew him, the real him, the him who couldn't – or no longer needed to – hide behind a title. It meant that he would come to trust her more than anyone else in Time and Space, eventually, but at that moment it stunned him into silence, because it was unpleasant in its unexpectedness, and it instinctively made him want to run far away. It had caused him to re-evaluate everything he thought he knew, because it meant that she knew more than he did, and that gave her a power that he didn't have and wouldn't be able to reattain.

Names had the ability to give you control over a situation, and the Doctor was hoping that the particular name he held in his mouth now would prove as useful as any other.

"Hello, Tom Riddle."

The wizard he addressed recoiled as though he'd been slapped. Whatever he'd been expecting from the stranger in the tweed jacket, it hadn't been that, and his pale, pointed face betrayed his surprise. It didn't take him long to recover though, and within a moment he was striding forward and looming at the Doctor imperiously.

"That is not my name," he snarled.

"It was your name, though, wasn't it." It wasn't a question. Tom Riddle was a man's name, and the being in front of him couldn't really be called a man at all. There was something wrong, there was something… missing. It was almost as though his humanity had been forcibly removed.

"I am Lord Voldemort, and I will destroy any who dare defy me!" The wizard declared dramatically, raising his wand with a threatening flourish.

The Doctor laughed. And once again, his opponent could not hide his surprise.

"We've already been through that," the Time Lord said lazily, making a vague gesture encompassing the wand and the invisible barrier between them. "That's no good to you, with the shield up."

"I can easily destroy the pathetic defences of Hogwarts," Voldemort retorted.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Oh can you now? That's really quite interesting, actually, because if the Daleks couldn't break through then how is a human like you going to achieve it?"

"I am no mere _human_," Voldemort spat with a ferocity that disgusted the Doctor. "And I will have no more of your _insolence_!"

Out of pure spite, the dark wizard shot a beam of bright green light towards the Doctor, who didn't even flinch as it hit the barrier and ricocheted back towards the Death Eaters. Before it could connect with anyone, Voldemort swept his hand through the air and the beam vanished.

"Told you so," the Time Lord said with a shrug, ignoring his opponent's obvious power. Voldemort knew he was powerful, after all, and that cockiness could very well disadvantage him greatly. The wizard's eyes narrowed, but remained locked on the Doctor as he began to pace back and forth. "Now, I've already given your friends a warning, and I'm sure they've passed that message on to you – and I only give one warning. I _told you _that the Daleks cannot be trusted, and I _told you _to leave Hogwarts. You've ignored me on both counts-" the Doctor stopped pacing and stared Voldemort straight in the eyes, looking old and ancient and terrifying, "- and whatever happens now is on your head."

"Bring forth the weapons!" The wizard roared, which was exactly what the Doctor knew he would do, no matter how much he had hoped he wouldn't.

So they were going to have to do things the hard way then.

The Death Eaters parted and three Daleks rolled forward menacingly, all golden brown and battered from their last fight and the no-doubt rough journey through the Time Portal into this dimension. At the same moment, Albus Dumbledore appeared beside the Doctor, having swept onto the scene so quickly and stealthily that he surprised everyone. The Doctor noticed that his face was creased with concern and that his eyes were sharp behind those half-moon spectacles - The Doctor rather liked those, he wondered if they'd suit this younger-looking regeneration…

"Hello, Tom," Dumbledore said in greeting, and his calm, almost cheerful voice cut through the tension in the atmosphere. "I see you've made some new friends."

Voldemort seemed to coil up like a cobra about to strike, his elbows sitting tight beneath his ribs and his spine tilting away from the Headmaster. Despite this, his voice was steady when he replied, "I have _weapons_, Dumbledore. Weapons that will destroy this pathetic school."

"This school that you called home for seven years, Tom?" Dumbledore inquired, still so calm and quiet.

"Hogwarts was never my _home_," the Dark Lord spat. For a second it looked as though he was going to continue, but then he merely curled his lips up in a sneer.

Sensing that the conversation was over, Dumbledore turned to the Doctor and asked quietly, "These are the Daleks?"

Swallowing his fear and keeping his face impassive, the Doctor glanced between the three aliens before them and rolled his shoulders back, trying to loosen some of the tension building in his muscles.

"Yes, these are the Daleks," he replied at a normal volume. The aliens already knew that no wizards outside Voldemort's circle of Death Eaters knew of their existence; there was no point trying to hide the Headmaster's ignorance on the matter.

"Doc-TOR," one of the Daleks said, its eyestalk twitching up slightly on the second syllable. "You and your AL-lies will SURR-en-DER."

"We'll do no such thing," he replied smartly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his 3D glasses. "We've done all this before, Daleks. We've fought viciously, destructively - we've battled across dimensions and we've both suffered losses - but I beat you all those times, and I will destroy you again now if you don't run. I am trying to show you mercy. _Take it. And run._"

"You did NOT de-STROY us Doc-TOR. We SUR-vived as we AL-ways DO and YOU have suff-ered ma-NY GREAT loss-es," a Dalek replied, and if it had been able to show emotion the Doctor could have sworn that it was laughing at him. "You will LOSE MORE to-DAY."

The Time Lord swallowed his rage and all of the past hurt that was building up, stinging the back of his eyes and threatening to choke him. ..._Rose... _He couldn't allow himself to get swept away in memories of past losses though, not when he had all of these people depending on him here and now. He still had people with him, people that needed him - the magnificent Amy Pond and the mysterious River Song, the Girls Who Didn't Make Sense - and he was going to be there for them, one-hundred percent. He slipped the glasses on and smiled as he saw that the Daleks were seeped in void-stuff and the Death Eaters had not a clue how to respond to his strange actions.

"Funny thing, that," he said casually, forcing his mind on to the situation at hand, "Because it all worked out for the best, what happened at Canary Wharf. And there's not billions of you now – Just the three. Three lost Daleks, so very far away from their shattered empire, with no one to lead them."

"_I _lead them!" Voldemort interrupted, his eyes flashing with indignation. "And that is more than enough talking; _kill him_!"

Dumbledore drew his slender wand with a smooth, practiced movement that revealed his age and skill in the magical arts. The Doctor didn't doubt for one moment that the Headmaster of Hogwarts was a powerful wizard, more powerful than Tom Riddle – but the longer he could delay the fighting, the better.

"I really don't think you want to do that," the Time Lord said in a rush, throwing his arms out in front of him, palms facing the Death Eaters. "You see, you can try. Plenty of people have tried to kill me. But it's not going to work."

"Only _I_ can live forever," the Dark Lord threatened, his wand poised to shoot.

"Ah, now, that's wrong. No one can live forever, Tom. And even if you could, you wouldn't want to." He paused for a moment, letting the gravity of his words settle on the wizard's shoulders.

Riddle had chosen his path, but there was still a chance that he could turn back. If only he could see the curse he was bringing upon himself… But the Doctor feared that it was a lost cause when he merely said snidely, "I am never wrong."

"Wrong again, I'm afraid." The Doctor grabbed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and flipped it idly from hand to hand. "You're also wrong about the Daleks being on your side, and about Hogwarts being unprepared to defend themselves against you, and about my origins. Gee, you're wrong about a fair bit aren't you? Have you ever stopped to consider that that's probably not a good sign of things to come?"

"You TALK to di-STRACT us Doc-tor, but we WILL NOT be STOP-PED," one of the Daleks said, rolling forward and stopping right beside Voldemort.

"Oh, you're onto me," the Doctor said, throwing his hands up in a show of mock surrender.

For the briefest of moments he thought he saw Dumbledore smile, but then the old wizard's face was expressionless once again.

"You dare mock the Dark Lord," the blonde Death Eater from earlier snarled, pulling his wand from his robes with a flamboyant swish. "Who do you think you are?!"

"I told you," the Doctor popped the glasses back into his pocket and gave them his most disarming smile. "I'm a Time Lord. And everyone knows that Time Lord beats Dark Lord, every time. …Oh, see what I did there? That's quite good."

"Ex-TER-min-ATE!" Apparently tired of his distractions, the Daleks began a chorus of their battle cry, punctuated by shots at the barrier. "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

"You will pay for this, Time Lord," Voldemort snarled, baring his pointed teeth. "Hogwarts will fall, and it will be on your head." Before the Doctor could respond, he had pointed his wand high into the air, aiming at a point far above the Doctor's head, and shouted, "NOW!"

Immediately every single Death Eater gathered there mimicked his actions, and jets of green light shot up and hit the invisible barrier spread like a bubble over Hogwarts. But rather than bouncing off, these spells instead began to seep along the top, and in a few moments the Doctor could see that they were actually eating away at the protective case. Slowly but surely, a hole was forming in the cover, its uneven edges spreading wider with each second. They'd figured out a way to break in.

"We need to get back to the castle," Dumbledore murmured, his eyes dark but still so alert, analysing the situation and calculating how best to form a counter-attack. "Doctor, we need to prepare the others."

"STOP!" The Time Lord cried, unable to keep all of his worry out of his voice as he stepped forward, flailing his arms in front of him in a desperate attempt to get their attention. "Stop it, _stop this right now_ and I'll let you go. No one has to get hurt."

"Everyone who defies me will be hurt, Doctor," Voldemort said triumphantly over the continued racket of the Daleks, "And I think your friend Amelia will be the first."

As soon as he hissed that fairytale name, the sweet syllables sounding completely wrong coming from that evil creature, the Doctor froze. For a millisecond he saw red, nothing but red – the red of her hair, the red of the blood this monster had spilled and was going to continue to spill unless he was stopped – and then he was running, back up the hill towards the castle, towards his little Amelia Pond, and away from yet another war that had forced itself upon him.

"Run, Doctor!" He heard Voldemort cry out behind him. "Run as fast and as far as you can, like the coward you are!"

As he bolted into the courtyard a quiet voice at the back of the Doctor's mind asked if he'd ever actually stopped running.

[[…]]

Amy was not one to sit back and let other people fight her battles for her. She was Scottish, and she was feisty and fiery and proud, and if some idiots in dark robes and ridiculous pointed hats thought they were going to intimidate her then they had another thing coming. As for the Daleks… Well, the Doctor had beaten them enough times in the past for her to be confident that he'd easily do it again. And if he needed her to keep the magic folk distracted so he could focus on fighting the aliens, then Amy was going to help in any way she could; magic blood or not.

"Give me your wand," she said to Lily, holding her hand out expectantly.

"What?" Lily blinked at her as though she hadn't comprehended the request.

"Your wand," Amy repeated, "Give it to me."

"What do you want it for?" James asked, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose and peering at her curiously.

"Because I need to know if I can cast any spells," she explained impatiently. Honestly, Hogwarts was under attack and they were asking her stupid questions; She didn't have time for this!

"But if you use Lily's wand then how's she meant to fight?" James questioned even as Lily nodded obligingly and passed the slender stick to her double.

"I'll steal someone else's, stupid face," Amy replied. "I just need to practice."

"I thought you were a muggle," Peter piped up from the arched entranceway, where he was watching attentively for any sign of Dumbledore or the Doctor.

Nostrils flaring, Amy rounded on him with the wand outstretched before her, and it sparked at the tip. Everyone else jumped in shock, but Amy somehow managed to keep her arm steady even as she gave a quiet yelp of surprise.

Remus was the first to speak, giving a low whistle and saying, "Guess not then."

"You won't be able to control it, Amy." The soft voice came from the door that led back into the castle, and Amy turned to see River standing there, her mane of blonde ringlets straining to spring free from the ponytail she'd pulled it back into, a few lose curls framing her face.

"I can try though, yeah?" She replied, not really a question but a declaration.

She waved the wand in front of her again, and a few more golden sparks fizzled out the tip. She could feel a tingling in her fingertips, a new sort of sensation that sent a shiver up her spine in anticipation of the power she contained within herself, channelled through this innocuous stick.

"You can try," River agreed, obviously hedging around the real issue. At a pressing look from Amy, however, she admitted, "You won't be able to harness the power in time, though. Any spells you cast will be uncontrolled and explosive, and at close range you'll be just as likely to hit those on our side as the enemies."

That put a dampener on her ambition to become a battle-ready witch in the span of fifteen minutes – If they even had that long. Her face fell, and she dropped her wand hand back to her side.

"But how am I meant to help if I can't use magic?" She asked, annoyed at how flat and disappointed her voice sounded to her own ears.

"The Doctor wants you to stay in the TARDIS, Amy," River reminded her, and even though there wasn't a trace of reprimand in her voice Amy felt like a child being told to go to their room while the adults talked.

"But that's not fair, I want to help -"

"And he wants you safe," the other woman said with a note of finality.

"_You_ wouldn't stay in the TARDIS if he told you to," Amy fought back even as her own reason told her not to.

Thankfully, River didn't seem annoyed or surprised at her reluctance to leave her friends in the line of fire. She simply shook her head, making her curls bounce, and Amy even thought that there might have been a hint of something inexplicable – was it _pride? _– in her eyes.

"But I have a blaster," she retorted, patting the gun holstered securely to her belt. "And quite a bit more experience in battle than you do." Amy opened her mouth to respond, but something in the other woman's eyes made her freeze – River seemed lost, suddenly; sad and tired and older than she looked. In that moment, Amy realised with a bolt of clarity, River Song reminded her painfully of the Doctor. "I was raised for this," she said, almost to herself.

Before Amy could question what she meant, there was a shout from behind them and she whirled around to see the Doctor bolting towards them, gangly legs covering an impressive distance with each stride and his hair blowing back off his high forehead.

"Amelia!" He roared, "Amy, I told you to stay in the TARDIS!"

He charged into the courtyard and didn't even pause as he gripped Amy's wrist and tugged her over towards the door River had just stepped through. Her eyes widened with shock, Amy had no choice but to trail along after the Doctor, her other arm flailing out behind her as he wrenched her inside Hogwarts.

"Doctor!" She yelled, finally pulling her arm free and forcing him to stop. "Doctor, what's wrong?"

"They're in," he said sharply, his eyes trained directly on hers and looking darker than usual. Any protests she had held died on her lips as he continued, "The Death Eaters are breaking down the defences and soon they'll be here, all of them, and the Daleks too. I will not have you out here defenceless, Amy. I will not leave you where you'll get hurt."

She started to argue, "But I'm not defenceless -"

He snatched the wand from her grasp and held it up in front of her, leaning in so that it was the only thing between their faces.

"You don't know how to use this," he said harshly. There was a beat of silence, where she simply stared right back at him, and then she watched as he deflated, lowering his eyes and whispering, "I won't let you become a murderer, Amelia."

"Doctor…" It was Lily, standing at the front of the Marauders and looking for all the world like a lost child. "Have they broken through?"

The Time Lord stepped back from Amy and nodded solemnly. "Yes, they're breaking in now. We have no more time."

"What's the plan?" James asked, looking to the Doctor like a soldier looks to his commanding officer.

"There isn't one," he murmured, screwing his eyes shut and rubbing at them with the heels his palms. "I don't have a plan."

"You _will _come up with one though, right? You- You've beat the Daleks before, yeah?" Peter asked shakily, cowering behind Remus.

"This is different," the Doctor said, not opening his eyes. "We're dealing with the void here, and travel between parallel worlds…" His voice trailed off into an incomprehensible whisper, and he looked so upset that Amy instinctively reached out to put her hand on his shoulder. He flinched slightly at her touch, but when he met her eye he looked grateful to have been pulled out of his thoughts. "I won't lose you too."

"I'm not going anywhere," she assured him, quietly passionate.

"Except for the TARDIS. River, take her." He didn't look at her as he said it, instead choosing to turn his attention to Lily as he threw her wand back to her, almost as though he couldn't bear to see the hurt in Amy's eyes.

"What – no –Doctor, no!" She complained as River stepped up beside her and took her hand. In a desperate attempt to get him to listen to her, she called, "Raggedy Man!"

That made him stop. He turned to face her, eyes softer now, and gently cupped her face in his hands. He bowed her head and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead, murmuring, "Wait for me in the TARDIS, Pond. I'll see you soon."

And she knew, then, that he wasn't going to back down on this. She turned to River, who shook her head minutely, and then allowed herself to be lead off to the TARDIS. She could hear the Doctor telling the boys to split up, saying he needed Sirius and Remus to go check on the other students, Peter to gather all the professors together, and Lily and James to come with him. She felt a pang of jealousy at that, a painful stab that made her want to turn back around and tell the Doctor that she was staying with him, whether he liked it or not.

"He'll only get mad," River said suddenly, and Amy started.

"Can you read minds?"

River laughed, "I wish. No, I just know the feeling. I could see it on your face."

"That obvious?" Amy sighed.

"It's okay, Amy," she comforted. "He's only sending you to the TARDIS to keep you safe."

"Feels an awful lot like time-out," Amy sulked as they entered the Great Hall.

"He'll be alright, you know," River said, and Amy was once again surprised by her ability to figure out what was really wrong. "The Doctor will be fine. He'll fight better without worrying about you getting hurt."

"Why does he bring me along, then?" She couldn't help but question. "What's the point if he's just going to lock me away?"

"He needs you," River replied, pushing the door of the TARDIS open and leading her inside, "But you're no good to him dead, and that's a very real possibility if you stay out there."

"But you understand, don't you, River?" Amy asked, eyes pleading for sympathy. "You could just… say I ran off or something?"

She gave an empathetic nod of her head, but then said, "I can't, Amy."

"Why not, River?"

"Because_ I_ need you alive, too."

And then the other woman was gone, back out into the Great Hall, and Amy was left alone in the console room. She sank down into the white chair and put her chin in her palm, sighing into the emptiness.

"They don't honestly expect me to stay cooped up in here, do they?" She called out to no one in particular.

The TARDIS only gave a weak thrum in reply.

[[…]]

When River returned to the hallway they'd all gathered in she had her hand on her blaster, ready to fight. The Doctor saw her before anyone else, and over the top of their heads he locked eyes with her. When she gave a slight nod the knot of tension in his stomach untangled, because Amy was safe. And then River was strutting over, a confident smirk on her face, and he allowed himself to smile back – to genuinely smile at her, to let her know that he was grateful and so happy that she was there with him – and the way that her pale green eyes lit up in response made him feel infinitely better.

"Are we all set, Sweetie?" She asked coyly, as though this were a game and not a life or death situation.

In some twisted way he enjoyed it, because it balanced out the weight he felt sitting heavy on his shoulders, dragging his hearts down.

So he replied, "Well, there's good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?"

"They've completely broken through the barrier now. The only thing standing between us and an angry horde of Death Eaters and Daleks is a few wooden doors," the Doctor said, and Lily's and James's faces fell at his words. "And the sonic doesn't do wood."

"And the good news?" She asked expectantly.

"I have a plan!" He declared excitedly.

She smiled. "Oh, that's always good!"

However, his own smile slipped away as James coughed quietly behind him. He reached up to scratch at his cheek, a nervous habit, and then admitted, "Unfortunately, there's a little bit more bad news."

She put a hand on her hip and sighed, "What is it?"

"My plan involves letting them in."

"_What?_"

"No, it'll all be fine, I've figured out how to get the Daleks back across the void _and _how to stop the Death Eaters, all in one fell swoop!" He accentuated his words by miming an explosion with his hands, puffing his cheeks out and then exhaling with a _whoosh_.

"You think you're so clever, don't you?" River teased, and he was embarrassed to feel himself blush.

The moment between them was quickly broken, though, when Dumbledore said gravely, "Doctor, you're certain this plan will work?"

"Well… as certain as I can be," he replied honestly.

"That's not very reassuring," Lily pointed out, chewing the inside of her cheek nervously.

James reached out for her hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing tightly. She gave him a small smile, and the Doctor felt his stomach twist as the heavy, sick feeling called _responsibility for other people's lives _returned. He had a plan, and it would work, and he would make sure everyone at this school was safe and free to live their lives. He looked at James and pushed down the churning guilt that rose up at the memory of Rory. Amy and Rory had lost their future, and he'd be damned if Lily and James were going to lose theirs too.

"It will work," he said with more confidence.

"It has to work," James said quietly.

McGonagall was standing beside Dumbledore, and when she spoke it was in a rush, as thought she'd been biting her tongue but could no longer stop herself. "You want us to let the murderous Death Eaters and these aliens into the school? Where the students are? You want us to just _invite them in_?"

"Well…" The Doctor's hand returned to scratch his cheek, and then he straightened his bowtie and cleared his throat. "Uhm, when you put it like that…"

"Little bit not good," River filled in.

"Little bit not good," he agreed.

"Sounds like we're making progress down here!" Sirius called as he came bounding down the stairs. "We've gone from very not good to little bit not good, how optimistic!"

"Aha," the Doctor said, clapping him on the shoulder and grinning. "Sirius has the right idea. Let's look on the bright side, yes?"

And then there was a loud thud from the direction of the entrance hall, as though someone was ramming into the door. The group of professors and students fell silent, and River looked at the Doctor as if to say _now or never. _When another thud came from the door to their right, which led out into the courtyard, he had to agree. It was time to move.

She seemed to sense his train of thought, for she pulled her blaster from its holster and declared forcefully, "Everyone to the Great Hall, now!"

Another thud, and Peter gave a terrified squeak. Sirius was looking at River's gun with fascination, and the professors of Hogwarts seemed torn. No one had moved.

"She said _go_!" The Doctor ordered, pushing Sirius towards Dumbledore and motioning for them all to turn around.

Another thud, from both doors, and the creaking of hinges as they weakened.

"_Now!_" River commanded, keeping her gun trained on the door as she hurried backwards.

The group finally began to move, hurrying down the hall. All they had to do was get inside the Great Hall before the Death Eaters broke down the front doors, and they'd be fine. If everyone was safe in there then the plan would work out fine.

"Doctor, we're all trusting you," Dumbledore said as they ran, a warning that the Doctor wished he hadn't given.

"I know," he replied, unable to stop himself from sounding slightly snappish. Saving the world got tiring when you did it on a near daily basis. "I asked you too."

Another thud, but it was okay, they were almost at the entrance hall, it was visible now, just at the end of the corridor –

"River, I need to go make sure they know what they're doing upstairs," he called over his shoulder. "Can you keep them safe?"

"If they do what I say," she called back, only turning her head to face him for a second before training her sights back down the corridor.

Sirius grabbed at the Doctor's elbow as he went to take off up the stairs in the entrance hall. "Why are you going up there? I just told them all what to do -"

"Change of plan," he informed him.

"Change of plan?!" James cried, incredulous. "What, you've literally _just _changed the plan?"

"Yes, and it's a good thing I have because this new plan is better than the old one," the Doctor retorted. "So now I have to go let everyone know, or this new and improved plan isn't going to work. Just keep _them _busy and _yourselves _safe until I get back, I'll only be a few minutes, I promise."

And then he darted up the stairs and disappeared onto the second level, and as the disbelief on James's face refused to fade from his mind's eye, the Doctor once again felt an awful lot like he was running away.

[[…]]

Amy was going to go mad if she stayed in the TARDIS. She could hear banging and shouting coming from outside, and she knew that they'd run completely out of time now. Everyone else was out there fighting, defending Hogwarts, and here she was, locked away like a child. Which was most definitely not the case. She hauled herself to her feet and headed for the door, determined to get out there and help, damned be the Doctor's wishes – but then a thought occurred to her. Here she was in a dimensionally transcendental ship that had travelled all over space and time. The Doctor may not have believed in guns, but he could be awfully sentimental; there was bound to be something useful in one of these rooms, right? So she spun around and headed down one of the TARDIS corridors, with not a clue of where she was going or even what she was actually looking for.

"If you can hear me," she called out hesitantly, figuring that it couldn't hurt to ask the ship for help, "It'd be really helpful if you could show me where the weapons are? Or, ah, not the weapons, necessarily, more just defensive… things? I need something to defend myself with. I need something to defend _you _with, so we can get back home."

There was no response at first, and Amy was just about to give up and slink back to the console room defeated. But then there was a click, and the door to a room not far down the hall swung open. Certain that it was the ship answering her request, she hurried forward and peered inside. Just as she'd expected, the Doctor didn't really have much in the way of weapons – he must have had none, actually – because the TARDIS had led her to the library. And there was the swimming pool, sitting right in the middle, between rows and rows of books in all different languages from all different places and times.

But there was one book in particular that caught Amy's eye. It was sitting on an end table by an armchair that was perched precariously close to the edge of the pool, and although it was mostly inconspicuous, just a random, unbound book, she felt herself drawn to it. It sparked that horrible nagging feeling at the back of her mind again, but it was different this time; now it was like an itch. She walked forward and picked it up, but the first page was blank. She thumbed through the rest of the pages but nothing stood out to her. It was as though her mind couldn't comprehend what was written there, and it all just appeared as a jumbled mess, and the itch remained unscratched. Maybe it was written in an alien language, she thought. But then…

"Aren't you meant to translate everything?"

No response. She sighed and flipped the book over in her hands, and then decided to keep it in her jacket pocket just in case. Deciding that the TARDIS wasn't going to be of anymore help, she began making her way back to the console room – but before she was even out of the corridor she heard a banging on the doors, and someone calling her name.

"Amy! Amy, please open up! I need help!"

She ran over, vaulting down the steps and wrenching the door open so fast that Lily collapsed forward into her. She waited for the girl to right herself, and when she didn't she felt her muscles constrict with fear. Lily couldn't stand, and something was horribly wrong. What the hell had happened? Hauling Lily inside, Amy peered out over her to see that the Great Hall was in chaos. It was filled with witches and wizards firing at each other, jets of bright green and red and blue and white light bouncing around, shattering windows and causing people to crumple to the ground in undignified heaps. Inhaling sharply, she pulled Lily's feet up and slammed the doors shut behind her.

"Lily," she said breathlessly, kneeling over the girl and taking her face in her hands. "Lily, I need you to keep your eyes open. Don't fall asleep."

"It hurts," Lily whined, turning her face into Amy's palm. "Oh, god, Amy, it _hurts_."

"What hur- Oh."

There was a hole in Lily's vest, a perfectly symettrical hole singed straight through the material and into her skin. It was right above her ribs, and the wound was already blistering and bleeding bright red.

Oh, god, Amy didn't have a clue what to do. She fought to push down the bile rising up her throat and choked out, "Lily, I know it hurts, and I'm sorry, I'm going to fix it, but I need you to tell me what happened."

"We were fighting – the Death Eaters – they're here, they're inside. And the Daleks… I was watching a Dalek and I-I wasn't paying close enough attention to the wizards and I got h-hit," Lily explained, her breathing becoming more laboured as she went on.

"Where's the Doctor?" Amy heard herself asking desperately, "Where's James?"

"James," Lily moaned pitifully, and Amy felt tears stinging the backs of her eyes. "James was trying to protect me. You need to help him, Amy." With a speed and strength that was totally unexpected, Lily reached up and grabbed Amy's collar, pulling her down. "You need to help him. Keep him safe. I can't- If anything happens to him, I couldn't -"

"I will, Lily," she said, prying the girl's hands away as a single tear rolled down her cheek. "I promise. I will."

Lily breathed out one last time, and didn't breathe back in.

"Infirmary!" Amy screamed up to the console, knowing that the ship could hear her. "Hospital, med bay, anything, dear god, just _something!_"

The central column beat up and down once, and thrummed. The TARDIS had responded. But what good was a med bay if Lily died before they got there?

Something stirred inside Amy's mind, old knowledge, a faint memory of _someone _teaching her something, saying that it might save someone's life one day. And then, without really knowing how she was doing it, Amy was taking a deep breath in, breathing that air into Lily's lungs, and pushing down on the join at the bottom of her ribs. CPR; she was giving Lily CPR, with no idea of how she knew what to do. She just _did._

And then Lily coughed, spluttering and retching so violently that her torso was jolted off the floor. She was breathing. Not wasting any time, Amy gathered all of her strength and somehow managed to heave her upright, her arm draped over her shoulders, and began the slow process of dragging her up the stairs and down the hall into the med bay, which had been conveniently relocated to the closest room.

Inside the totally white room, she hefted her physical double up onto a bed and tried not to panic. She couldn't stay here with her, but how could she leave her?

"James," Lily whispered, answering Amy's unasked question. "Go… find… James…"

"I'll bring him back to you," Amy promised.

She took Lily's wand from where she'd shoved it into her pocket, and then she ran out of the TARDIS, pausing only for the briefest of seconds to lock the door behind her before charging straight into the wizarding war.


	11. Cold Blooded Monster

**a.n. **i'm sorry that i make you wait for so long for an update and then when i give it to you it is just entirely angst angstangst and tragedy. i'm mourning the loss of my nan and i think that comes across in the over all depressing nature and content of this chapter - eleven is definitely not the best, but it may make you cry your eyes out. i'm so sorry. i listened to rue's farewell by james newton howard on repeat while i wrote this, and it's a beautiful heartbreaking piece of music. anyway... i'm sorry for the wait, and this serves as your warning; **character death** ahead. thank you for sticking by me.

* * *

_Eleven – Cold Blooded Monster_

The Doctor counted three before he even got inside the Great Hall. Three people – one _child _- dead; three lifeless bodies as cold as the stone ground they had fallen on, never to get back up again. No matter how much of it he saw and no matter how little he knew the person, death never failed to affect him. He supposed it was his human side showing, a sign that he wasn't just a disengaged observer of the universe, or a heartless warrior – but what he wouldn't give sometimes to just be numb, to be able to not feel the stabbing guilt and regret and anger that swelled in his chest and made his eyes darken until they were black as coal, cold and calculating as they swept across the battle unfurling in front of him. No one else noticed the way the lines around his mouth softened as he sighed, how his eyelids fluttered closed to both block out and preserve the faces of those freshly fallen, because although to him it felt like he took a lifetime to grieve the loss of these strangers, to the rest of the world it was mere milliseconds. And then he was back in the game, the never ending tug-o-war between good and evil, preservation and destruction, life and death. He wondered what the cost of winning would be this time.

He found Dumbledore straight away, jumped over an upturned table and dodged a few spells to grip the other man by the shoulder. "Can you hold the Death Eaters back?"

Dumbledore didn't turn his head, merely looking at the Doctor out of the corner of his periwinkle blue eyes as he continued to fight the black-robed wizard aiming spells at him. Even so, a glint was visible in the headmaster's eyes that gave the Doctor the distinct impression he was merely keeping his opponent preoccupied and could easily end the fight whenever he saw fit.

"Other wizards, we can handle," Dumbledore informed him, "But the aliens… nothing we do to them is having an effect. Their armour is too strong."

"You have to aim for the eye-stalk," the Time Lord replied, absently noting that his hands were shaking ever so slightly as he tossed his sonic screwdriver between them. He held the device out straight in front of him to demonstrate. "Aim right for the eye-stalk and it should be able to penetrate."

"Noted," Dumbledore said with a curt nod of the head.

He flicked his wrist, and in one swift movement the wand flew from the hand of the dark wizard he was duelling with, and he was propelled backwards across the room. His head connected with the stone wall, and he slid to the floor to land in an unmoving, unconscious – but definitely alive - heap. Reassured that Dumbledore could take care of himself, the Doctor clapped the headmaster on the shoulder and took off to find River and the Marauders.

Although he couldn't fire back – nor did he want to - his screwdriver turned out to be quite useful against wands. When on the right setting, it could disarm any witch or wizard with one click, which was interesting, as the wands seemed to made of wood; he'd have to look into that later. As he ran across the hall he aimed his screwdriver at the snarling Death Eaters, causing their wands to fly right out of their hands and skitter across the floor uselessly. He hoped they got stepped on in the mess of the fight.

He spotted River's wild mane of curls as she spun in a circle, blaster out and a ring of Death Eaters falling at her feet, and cut a direct path over to her. Just before he reached her, however, a flash of bright orange appeared in his peripheral vision, moving quickly in the opposite direction, and a bolt of panic made him freeze. _Amy._

"Doctor!"

Moving purely instinctively, the Time Lord ducked down low as soon as River's cry reached his ears, and felt her the shot from her blaster whiz over his shoulder. He heard the cry of pain as it connected with its target, and the muted thud of another body hitting the floor. Another life, another death. He bit the inside of his cheek and tried to contain his rage as he straightened up.

"Is Amy in the TARDIS?" The words tumbled out of his mouth, even before he was fully upright again, blurring almost into one long string of a word in their desperation to be heard.

"Yes," River replied immediately, somehow knowing how much he needed the answer straight away. "I made sure she stayed in."

Relief flooded through him, and for a moment he could breathe normally. It was Lily he had seen, no doubt fighting alongside and protected by James and the boys. He would get to her in a moment, but for now Amy was safe in the TARDIS and that was what he cared about most.

"Are you okay?" He asked as River jogged over to him, not even breathless but looking highly concerned.

"Fine," she replied quickly, glancing at the hands he placed on her shoulders and then back up at his eyes. He expected her to ask him the same question, but instead the corners of her mouth turned down and she said softly, "I'm sorry."

Perhaps it was obvious that he was not okay. Perhaps she already suspected – already knew – that he was far from okay, and just didn't want to hear him lie to her, as they both knew he would; "I'm the king of okay" would roll off his tongue without a second thought. Perhaps, even more than that, she didn't want to risk the possibility of him actually telling her the truth. Perhaps she couldn't bear to hear him actually say the words, "No, I am anything but okay." And so she skipped the question and jumped straight to the apology. She never was one for linear, River Song.

He dropped his hands back to his sides. "What for?"

"This isn't how you like to do things," she said matter-of-factly, but he could see in her eyes that she was genuinely upset by his pain.

How strange it was that she knew him so well when he hardly knew her at all.

He asked, "Is it how _you _like to do things?"

That made her smirk, and he saw instantly that her mask was back on. Impenetrable and unreadable once more, she answered, "Spoilers."

Her eyes flickered to the left, the smallest of movements, and without a word passing between them they both knew instantly what to do. They spun, now back to back, and their feet stepped in perfect unison as they moved in a circle, never breaking contact. The Doctor used his sonic to disarm the Death Eaters who had tried to ambush them, and then fluidly moved so that River was facing them. He felt the muscles in her back tense as she fired her blaster, once, twice, three times, and then she lowered her gun and he turned around.

Her respiratory rate had increased and her bravado had all but vanished, and without thinking about it he put a hand on her arm and squeezed gently. Her eyes widened in surprise and she stared up at him, unabashedly shocked – and then she gave him the smallest of smiles, and he found himself smiling back.

"Have you seen the Marauders?" He asked, pushing his fringe back out of his eyes.

"Last I saw them they'd stationed themselves by the end of the hall, not far from the TARDIS," River replied.

"I have to get to them, make sure they're okay," the Doctor said, "Are you alright on your own?"

River laughed at that, but it was humourless. "I can take care of myself, thank you, Doctor," she said, and he couldn't quite tell how much sarcasm she had laced her words with. Her eyes darkened as she continued, "But I think we have a bigger problem at the moment."

"A bigger problem? What could be a bigger problem than this?" He waved his arms out sideways, wiggling his fingers at the people duelling all around them.

And then he heard it, right behind him, no more than two metres away. Cold, power-hungry and merciless. The sound that haunted his nightmares, that followed him across the multiverse and just refused to die.

"Doc-TOR!"

[[…]]

Amy Pond had been in her fair share of fights over the years. She got in as much trouble at school as any of the boys, more than Rory and even Mels – in terms of schoolyard fights, that is; Mels always took the cake when it came to juvenile delinquency on a public scale – and she knew how to land a mean right hook when she needed to. She was tall and long-limbed, but over time she'd grown into her extremities and she wasn't particularly clumsy. She could dodge most hits, and as she bolted across the Great Hall in search of James Potter she found herself being extremely grateful for all the practice she'd had at honing her reflexes.

She ducked down as a jet of red light shot over her shoulder and then rolled to the right as a retaliatory blow nearly grazed her leg. It was kind of like a fireworks show gone horribly wrong, she mused as a bit of the table behind her exploded and sent shards of wood flying across the hall.

"Lily!" The voice was close by, somewhere to her left and familiar, and she was pretty sure they were saying more but she couldn't make it out over the noise of the fight. She turned her head towards where she thought the source of the noise was, and saw Sirius running towards her. "Lily, get down!"

He propelled himself forwards and hit her at such an angle that she was knocked flat to the ground. Amy held on to Lily's wand for dear life, keeping her fingers curled tightly around the stick even as her reflexes said to drop it and use her hands to break her fall. Sirius landed on top of her and all of the wind left her lungs as his arms circled around her head, cradling her in darkness and somewhat stifling the noise of explosions and taunts from those fighting around them. There was a sudden flash of heat, and then his weight lifted and he was grabbing at her and hauling her up to her feet. As soon as she was standing, however, his arm was on her back, his palm pushing her head down and forcing her to run forward with her spine bent, so she was half crouching. He only let her go when he'd pulled her into a sort of make-shift fort behind two upturned tables in the corner behind the TARDIS.

"Get off me!" Amy cried indignantly in her natural Scottish brogue, pushing him away as soon as she could. "You could have just told me to stay down, instead of jumping me."

"Oh, thanks for saving my life, Sirius, I very much appreciate the fact that you endangered yourself for me," he said sarcastically, rolling his grey eyes at her and scowling.

"Alright, thanks for the help," she relented with a sigh, trying to stretch the kink out of her back as she spoke.

Sirius didn't react the way she'd expected him to. His eyes went wide and he pointed a finger at her accusingly. "Blimey, you're not Lily!"

Now it was Amy's turn to roll her eyes. Of course, the accent. "No, I'm not. She's in the TARDIS… She's hurt," she paused here, softening at the genuine worry in Sirius's eyes. "She sent me out to find James."

"I haven't seen Prongs for a while," Sirius admitted, and she saw the worry in his eyes. "We split up, took a side of the room each… Lily went with him."

"What side was his?" Amy asked.

"Obviously not this one," Sirius replied, shaking his head at her.

"Okay, so that was a stupid question. Excuse me for being a little bit thrown by the circumstances!" Amy snapped back, folding her arms over her chest with a huff. "Where are the others then, Remus and Peter?"

"Trying to stop any more from coming in the front doors, last I saw," he told her. A Dalek hovered past their table, its mechanical voice audible above the din, and Sirius' features darkened. "How do we beat those things, Amy?"

"The Doctor'll take care of them," she answered confidently, even as her stomach twisted uncomfortably. "All we have to worry about is stopping the wizards, and finding James."

Sirius set his jaw and held out a hand. "What are we waiting for then?"

Amy managed the smallest of smiles as she curled her fingers around this strange, lovely boy's palm. "I thought you'd never ask."

The two of them sprinted across the hall, hand in hand, Sirius madly firing spells at any Death Eaters within range, until finally they found Remus and Peter by the front doors.

"Sirius, Lily!" Remus said, staring at them. His hands were shaking and there was a stain of scarlet blood on the hem of his robes. "You're okay!"

"Amy," she automatically corrected, but it didn't stop him from sweeping them both up into a hug.

"You're safe," he repeated when he let them go, and Amy readily returned his smile.

Sirius pulled a disgusted face and smoothed down the front of his crumpled shirt. "This is no time for feelings, Moony."

"Of course, forgive me for being happy to see you safe," Remus retorted with a roll of his eyes.

"Th-th-there's more of th-them out th-there!" Peter stammered, glancing out the small crack between the two heavy doors. "H-how c-c-can we s-st-st-stp them?"

"Just keep fighting back, Wormtail," Sirius said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You've got this."

Peter didn't look convinced, but he didn't argue – just kept his wand pointed at the doors, even as it shook unsteadily.

"Have you seen James?" Amy inquired, "Lily asked me to find him."

"Where is Lily?" Remus asked, eyes narrowing in concern.

"Safe, in the TARDIS," Amy replied, squashing down her guilt over the lie. Lily _was_ in the TARDIS, and that _was_ the safest place to be, she thought – there was no need to mention that she was hurt when Remus was scared enough as it was. "But I need to find James."

Remus scanned the room over their heads, and then pointed. "There!"

Amy looked in that direction and saw James, duelling with a Death Eater and looking as though he was totally capable of taking care of himself. When she looked closer, however, she noticed the worry glistening in his hazel eyes, the bloody tear on his left trouser leg and the way he limped ever so slightly when he moved. She had to get to him, fast.

She took off without saying goodbye, vaguely aware of the three other Marauders following after her. Sirius aimed a spell at the Death Eater's chest and he fell back, leaving James alone and free to catch Amy when she tripped over a table leg and accidentally threw herself at him.

"Lily," he gasped into her hair, squeezing her tight. She ignored the aching bruise on her spine and how it hurt when he hugged her, and just let herself be comforted by his embrace. "Lily, Lily, Lily… I thought -"

And then she pulled back, and when she saw his eyes widen in recognition she couldn't hide her sadness. "I'm sorry, James. She's in the TARDIS, safe. But she – she wants me to look after you."

James' eyebrows knitted together in concern. "Look after me? But, Amy -"

"What's this?" Remus asked, and Amy turned to see that the book the TARDIS had given her had fallen from her pocket when she'd tripped.

"It-it's a book," Peter answered.

"Yeah, thanks for that enlightening observation, Wormtail," Sirius said sarcastically, casually firing a spell at a passing Death Eater.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," Remus read out the title, and the five of them went still.

"Harry Potter," James repeated, grabbing the book from Remus and observing the cover. "Potter's my last name… And he looks just like me!"

But the book hadn't had a cover before, when Amy had first gotten it. Inf act, she hadn't been able to read any of it at all… Amy suddenly felt lightheaded. She swayed on her feet, blinked rapidly, and then everything came flooding back.

"Oh my god!" Amy breathed, snatching the book away from James and thumbing through it's pages.

Yes, it was all there – the story of Harry Potter, Lily and James' son. In a book. A _fiction _book. A fiction book that she had read when she was a kid, that practically everyone in her world had read… And yet here she was, talking to the characters before the events in the book had even happened, and they seemed perfectly solid and real and _was it possible to slip into a dimension where books were real life?_

"Amy, what's this book? Why's it got such a dashing young bloke with my surname on the front?" James asked her.

She debated whether or not she should tell him, worrying that it could rip a hole in the fabric of space-time if she revealed too much information. But then, she reasoned, apparently the universe was already full of cracks, so it couldn't do that much damage, could it?

"It's a book from my universe," she began, and then she took a deep breath. "A book about your son."

"My _what?!_" James exclaimed in disbelief.

"Your son," she repeated, "With Lily."

"Yes!" James whooped, punching the air. "I _knew _it."

"You owe me five sickles," Sirius said to Peter, and the latter swore under his breath.

"So in your universe we're characters in a book?" Remus asked the important question.

"Yes," Amy answered.

"So that book has our future in it?" James inquired, reaching out for it.

She held it out of his reach and placed it securely back into her pocket, which now seemed to be, strangely, bigger on the inside. "I don't think you should look at it," she said sternly.

Her heart ached as she remembered what had happened – _was going to happen_? She though in a panic – to Lily and James and all the Marauders over the series.

"But Amy it could help us win this fight! It could tell us -" James began to argue, but whatever else he'd been about to say, it was cut short by a howl from a Death Eater across the hall, and then a deafening silence.

The Marauders and Amy all froze, staring about the Great Hall in shock. The Death Eaters had all fallen, lying in crumpled black piles across each other on the floor and against the walls, limp and powerless, and no more were appearing through the doors.

Dumbledore, McGonagall and the other staff and older Hogwarts students were standing at various points around the hall, but they were slowly huddling together as they realised that there were no more enemies present.

"D-Did we – Do you think we…?" Peter asked, not daring to voice the end of the question, because it defied reason.

No one answered him; everyone was in a state of disbelief. Surely it couldn't be over? The Dark Wizards weren't going to go down that easy, were they? And the Daleks, the Daleks were definitely more of a threat than this –

Amy looked for them around the hall, desperate suddenly to see what they were up to. One Dalek was still and apparently lifeless, facing the back corner, and the other three were hovering forward to one place, joining together – congregating. And heading straight for River and the Doctor.

"_No!" _Amy screamed, lurching forward and going to run to the Doctor's side, wanting desperately to help him.

"No!" James cried just as passionately, gripping her arm and pulling her back to him. She struggled, but he refused to loosen his grip. He reached up and curled his fingers around her other arm, too, holding her in place and forcing her to look at him. "You can't put yourself in danger like that -"

"But I have to tell him about the book, he has to know -"

"Amy, I have to tell you something," he said, hazel eyes boring into hers. She thrashed against him, and still he held fast. "Amy, _stop. _Just listen to me, _please, _just listen. You've told me a secret about myself, and I think that you deserve the same." With great difficultly, she forced herself to stop fighting and listen to what he had to say, even as every fibre in her body screamed for her to run to the Doctor. James took a deep breath and said, "When we first met, you cried."

She didn't understand why he was bringing this up now, why this stupid detail was suddenly important to him. "Yeah, so?"

"_So, _you were crying because you were sad," James elaborated, looking at her as though she should have understood what he was talking about.

"Yeah, but I don't even know why I was sad; it was stupid," Amy replied, "And why does this even matter?"

"It matters because _I_ know why you were sad," he told her, and for some reason Amy's breath caught in her throat.

"Why am I sad?" She asked, her voice coming out in a whisper.

James opened his mouth to reply, but Amy never heard what he said.

Because at that moment the doors to the Great Hall of Hogwarts swung open, and the Dark Lord Voldemort marched in – with eleven year old Ariel in front of him, suspended like a puppet on strings.

[[…]]

Great, three Daleks and a wizard with an ego complex against him and River, who was now staring at their enemies in obvious shock. No TARDIS, no magic and no more time. The Doctor looked into Ariel's scared, blue eyes and tried to stay calm, because if he lost his temper there was a good chance he'd lose her, too.

"Let her go," he said, voice surprisingly even.

"She's our bargaining chip," Voldemort replied with a cruel snicker. "Why would we just let her go?"

"Because you don't need her," the Doctor tried to convince him, "Because I'm more likely to do what you say if you just _let her go_ -"

"And why should I believe you?" Voldemort asked.

"Because I'm a man of my word," the Doctor managed to grind out.

"Ah, but you're not a man at all, are you?" the dark wizard retorted. "You're not from here."

"I thought that was common knowledge by now," the Doctor said snarkily, quickly tiring of this pointless talk while Ariel was still trapped in Voldemort's enchantment. "What do you want?"

The wizard made a face that the Doctor supposed could have passed for a smile. "Join us, Doctor."

He recoiled, visibly disgusted at even the thought. "No. Never," he replied instantly.

Voldemort hissed, "I wouldn't be so quick to turn down my offer if I were you, Time Lord."

He flicked his wrist and Ariel's whole body twitched, lifting into the air and writhing unnaturally as she howled in pain.

"_Stop!_" the Doctor and River cried in unison, both rushing forward. "Stop, leave her alone!"

Voldemort lowered his wand, and Ariel collapsed down to the floor, her small legs crunching painfully against the stone ground. The Doctor flinched at the sight, physically pained by the terror written across her young face. This wasn't fair, at all, and it had to stop, right now.

Dumbledore walked over to stand behind Tom, periwinkle eyes trained on the boy that had once been such a promising student. "Stop this, Tom."

"What are you going to do about it, Dumbledore?" he asked, firing a curse at him. Dumbledore reflected it easily and sent it back towards the other wizard, but he waved his hand and the spell vanished. Dumbledore went to lift his wand again, but Voldemort sang out, "Don't come any closer, Albus. If you do, the girl will suffer."

Obediently, the advancing line of Hogwarts staff stopped in their tracks.

"What do you think of this?" the Doctor asked the Daleks, deciding to ignore Voldemort for the time being. "You can't like this plan very much." He stared defiantly down the lead Dalek's eyestalk. He heard River make a faint noise of concern behind him, but he couldn't afford to turn his head and look at her. He continued, "You've chased me for so long, and now that you're finally here, right in front of me, you're just going to let me go, are you? You're going to let me walk away, with some _human _who outsmarted you_? _Huh? _Go on._ I'm right here; why don't you kill me?"

The Daleks were silent and still, standing in front of the Doctor and revealing no clues as to what they were thinking.

"What, now that you've actually got the chance you don't want to?" The Time Lord asked tauntingly.

The Daleks still did not respond, and Voldemort was still preoccupied with Dumbledore.

River stepped forward and gently went to grasp the Doctor's arm. "Sweetie -"

He cut her off and shrugged away from her hand, grinding out, "Stay behind me, River."

"But -"

"_No buts,_" he growled, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "You need to stay behind me."

"But _Doctor,_" she insisted, refusing to step back, "I think they _need_ you."

"What?" That stunned him. He blinked at her, and then at the Daleks, and then slowly the realisation that she might have a point dawned on him. "Oh. _Oh. Ooh._ You need me. That's why you aren't killing me. Great." He flashed River a smile – which she nervously returned – and then focused on the Dalek again. "Why do you need me?"

The front Dalek's eyestalk twitched once, and there was a weighted pause.

Before any of them spoke, the Doctor cut in again. "No, wait, don't tell me! I know – Your Time Portal was hijacked, and you were brought here through a crack. So the crack was there first, and it wasn't your plan to end up in this dimension; _someone else _brought you here. Who? Who would have that technology?"

The Dalek didn't answer, but Voldemort said, "_I _brought the machines here."

"No, you didn't," the Doctor retorted as though this was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. "You might be a wizard, but you're still a human – as much as you hate to admit it – and you don't have that sort of power. Humans never will. You can't have brought them here. You just found the crack, stumbled across the injured Daleks and decided to use them for your own gain. You're just a parasite -"

Flinging a burst of fire at Dumbledore, Voldemort flicked a curse again at Ariel, and the Doctor immediately fell silent.

Once the girl's cries had turned into quiet whimpers, River leant forward and whispered in his ear, "Get them to bargain with you, use them to turn Voldemort's focus." Her breath was shaky against the shell of his ear, her voice wavering with repressed emotion. He noticed that she hadn't stopped looking at Ariel since the girl had been brought in.

"Bargain with me? Bargain over wha- Oh." The Time Lord's lips stretched into a taut smile as the enigmatic River Song proved to be, once again, a step ahead of him. He said to the Dalek, "You want me to re-open the Time Portal for you. You're too weak to do it on your own, and you need my help. Ha!"

"They will not be leaving," Voldemort interrupted, "And neither will you."

"I won't join you, Tom," the Doctor said quietly.

His calm seemed to infuriate the dark wizard even more, and he raised his wand, about to strike the Doctor himself –

When Dumbledore aimed a spell right at him, breaking the enchantment he had over Ariel and allowing the girl to run forward into the Doctor's open arms.

He cradled her small form in his arms, looked down at her young, pale face and wide blue eyes, so bright and beautiful and _alive. _

Her tiny hands clutched weakly at his jacket, curling around the tweed and pulling him closer to her. Her eyelids fluttered as tears spilled over her lashes and rolled down her cheeks. He lifted a hand to wipe them away, trying to give her a reassuring smile even as he felt his throat constrict. Oh, she was so small and so fragile and how close had she come to being broken beyond repair?

"I'm going to keep you safe, Ariel," he said, and some part of his mind vaguely registered that he was rocking her gently back and forth as he held her against his chest. "I promised I'd keep you safe, and that's what I'm going to do. Once Hogwarts is all cleaned up we'll get some more ice-cream, you and me, because ice-cream makes everything better, and – and -"

A spell shot over his shoulder, barely missing the top of Ariel's head, and – with some reluctance – he passed her off to River.

"Take her back to the dorms," he instructed, "Or – just away. Just take her somewhere she'll be safe."

River nodded and ran from the Hall with Ariel in her arms, taking advantage of Dumbledore's duel with Voldemort to make her escape. The Doctor used this time to focus again on the Daleks.

"You need my help to get back to the right universe," he stated, "You know that this isn't going to end well for you. So stop it, right now. Just stop."

Before any of the Daleks could respond, the Headmaster of Hogwarts managed to snare Voldemort in a binding spell, locking him into place. He roared with rage and fought against the spell, but couldn't get free. Dumbledore had trapped him, and it looked like the Death Eaters had been beaten, and only the Daleks were left to contend with.

And then something totally unexpected happened.

The Doctor caught a flash of bright red hair out of the corner of his eye, and without thinking he turned to look – and his worst fears were confirmed. Because that wasn't Lily, wrenching herself free from James's hold and sprinting out of the makeshift barricade they'd been hiding behind; it was Amy, his Amelia Pond, running towards him and right into a battle he did not want her to have any part in.

"_NO!" _He cried, flinging his arms out in front of him and urging her to stop, to turn around and run in the opposite direction, because the Daleks were more dangerous than the wizards and he wanted her _safe, _as far away from them as possible.

She didn't listen though, just kept running to him – and the Doctor was so distracted by his worry for her that by the time he noticed the female Death Eater with the crazy, dark curls a few metres away lurch into a sitting position, he was a millisecond too late.

The beam of green light shot forward from her wand, and everything seemed to slow down. Instantaneously Sirius shot at the offender, but it wasn't enough. She dodged his spell by rolling to the side, and still her curse was racing forward through the air, and it was going to hit the Doctor, and it was going to kill him –

"Doctor!"

Until something solid and warm crashed into the Doctor's side and knocked him off his feet, sent him stumbling sideways and crashing down as his centre of gravity shifted. He whirled around to see what had run into him, what had saved him from being hit by the curse – and at the same time he heard Amy scream, he saw James.

Lying on the ground with his glasses askew and his chest rising and falling unevenly as he vocalised his pain, he'd knocked the Doctor out of the way and taken the hit himself. The Doctor felt an indescribable pain swell in his hearts at the realisation that he'd done it again. The realisation that Rory had been right – that he made people reckless, he made them a danger to themselves, and that even in a parallel universe it was his fault that this boy died. That he had made Amy lose the boy she loved not just once, but twice.

"_James!" _Amy cried, dropping to her knees beside the boy. She gently cupped his face in her hands, repositioned his glasses and stared into his hazel eyes as the light in them slowly dimmed.

The Doctor knelt over the top of him, scanned him with the sonic and tried to ignore how futile it all was. He knew just how it would end, because he'd lived through this before. But he was still going to try. "James, can you hear me?

"I don't understand," he gasped, and the words were laboured, shaking with the effort they took to say.

"Shh, don't talk," Amy told him urgently before asking, "Doctor, is he okay? We have to get him on the TARDIS, Lily's there -"

James said dazedly, "I'm in the books. I have a son. I can't die here -"

"Don't say that." Amy was shaking her head, desperately trying to hold onto a fading hope.

The Doctor watched on helplessly as this boy died and another piece of Amy's heart died with him. Her face crumpled as the Marauders gathered around their fallen friend, overwhelmed by the pain of grief, and the Doctor wanted to _scream _because there was nothing he could do to stop it. James was going to die, just like Rory. Just like they all did, eventually.

"Prongs," Sirius said, voice cracking, "James, mate, you're going to be okay."

"You'll be the most handsome guy in school when I'm gone, Padfoot," James managed to joke, smiling weakly at Sirius, who tried to laugh but sobbed instead. James reached out to the three Marauders and said, "You're my best mates."

"You're the best," Remus choked out, squeezing his hand.

James turned to look up at Amy, and in that moment it was clear that he was mourning all the things he would never get the chance to do. "You're so beautiful… Tell Lily…" he grimaced, "I'm sorry."

"She knows, James," Amy said as tears rolled down her cheeks, "I know she does."

James went still, his eyelids closed, and as his face relaxed the Doctor knew that this was it. He slowly rose to his feet, glancing nervously at the Daleks, who were still standing too close for his liking, and at the witch who had tried to kill him, who was currently staring down the end of McGonagall's wand.

"Amy," he said slowly, "boys, you have to step away now."

"No!" Amy cried out, clutching at James' arms. "I am not leaving him, we can't leave him -"

The Doctor looked at Amy, curled over James and crying her heart out, and then he looked at the horde of Daleks and the Death Eaters in front of him, and he felt more _sick and tired _of their callousness and their arrogance and more ready to end this pathetic war than he had in a long, long time.

"He was just a boy!" The Doctor cried, torment tearing the words from his throat and making them jagged at the edges, so they ripped the very air apart as he hurled them straight at the dark haired witch. "He was a _child_!"

"And now he's dead," she said, and where the Doctor had expected malice he instead found humour. She turned to Sirius, who had his wand aimed at her throat, and laughed. "Sorry that I killed your ickle blood traitor friend, cousin. It's his own fault for getting in the way."

Boiling over with rage, Sirius aimed a curse at her, but again she reflected it.

"I liked him." The Time Lord's voice came out in a low rumble, threatening and forceful and dark. "He was just a child, an innocent seventeen year old boy, with his whole _life _ahead of him! He didn't have to die. And you killed him."

"Everyone dies, Doctor," Voldemort said mockingly, throwing his own words back at him.

Something inside the Doctor snapped. He didn't miss how the witch flinched as he stepped towards her. He was not some silly little man they could bully and threaten into submission – he was the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords of Gallifrey, the Oncoming Storm. He had watched worlds burn and universes end and time itself run out, and they thought their silly little war could stop him? Oh, how wrong they were. And oh, how he was going to make them pay for what they had done.

"Not today!" The Doctor roared. "No one else will die today!"

"You still think you can stop me?" Voldemort sneered.

The muscles in his shoulders tensed, and then, to everyone's surprise, he broke out of the bindings Dumbledore had placed him in, the force of his escape knocking all of the Hogwarts staff and students behind him to the ground.

The Doctor bent down and gripped Amy's arms, dragging her to her feet and desperately pushing her behind him. She was still crying and she fought to get back to James, but her muscles were tired and he could lift her easily. When she was somewhat shielded by him, he tapped the wand she still held with his sonic screwdriver, giving her a meaningful look.

"There's no hope for you now, Doctor," Voldemort sneered, and the witch beside him cackled.

The Doctor growled, "Do you really think I'm going to let you ally yourself with the Daleks, threaten my friends and murder innocent people – innocent _children_ – and get away with it? Oh, no. _No._ You will regret the day you found that crack, Tom; I will _make sure _you regret it until the day that you die."

The lead Dalek's eye stalk twitched and it slowly said, "You will HELP us, Doc-TOR. We have a COMM-on EN-e-MY. WE will DE-FEAT the hu-Man and you WILL op-en a Ti-ME Por-TAL for US and we WILL re-turn to OUR di-MEN-sion."

"_Your _dimension?" The Doctor scoffed. "Hardly."

"I am not your enemy!" Voldemort roared at the Daleks, "You are my machines, my weapons! You fight for me!"

Apparently fed up with being ordered around, one of the Daleks spun and shot Voldemort. The Daleks were still weak, nowhere near full power, and Voldemort was a powerful wizard - he managed to soften the blow to less than deadly, but it still hit him hard and did quite a bit of damage. He fell backwards with a cry, landing on the dark haired witch and taking her down with him.

"Well thanks," the Time Lord said, only slightly sarcastic, "that makes this a little less complicated."

"WE are the MOST POW-er-FUL be-INGS here, Doc-TOR," the Dalek said, "If you DO NOT he-LP us we will DE-STROY the WIZ-ard-ING world JUST as we DE-stroyed Gall-I-FREY."

His jaw clenched, a vein in his neck popped and the knuckles of his left hand cracked as he squeezed them into a tight fist. "You didn't destroy Gallifrey," he said venomously, "_I _did."

With a shaking hand, he pointed his sonic at the ceiling and yelled, "_NOW, AMY!"_

And then the whole world came crashing down.

* * *

**a.n. **please leave a review telling me what you think? i promise the next chapter things get _much _better and brighter and there's far less crying and heartbreak!


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